Worst Ski Trip Ever
by sourpopsicles15
Summary: (Yes, I know the title sucks. The story isn't as bad, I promise. XD) Danny's class is going on a ski trip. On the way, their bus runs out of gas and Danny finds himself with one problem after another. He is focusing on keeping his peers in the dark about his ghostly alter-ego, and trying to keep them alive at the same time. Set after D-Stabilized. Rated T for language.
1. Road Trip

**Chapter 1**

**Lancer P.O.V.**

It was all William Lancer could do to not jump out the window of the bus he was currently driving.

"Are we there yet, _abuelo_? Every inch of my flawless skin is freezing!" Complained Paulina Sanchez. She was perhaps the most snobby, high-maintenance student Lancer had taught in all his years. The old teacher sighed, ignoring the fact that Ms. Sanchez had just called him 'Grandpa' in her native language. He had taken it upon himself to learn what the spanish word had meant after the last ten times he'd been called it.

"Not yet, Ms. Sanchez. We are still a few hours away from the hotel." Mr. Lancer spoke as calmly as he could. There was a collective groan from from behind him. "I told you all to pack for the weather, so if you're cold it's nobodies fault but your own." He left it at that and returned his attention to the snowy, deserted highway ahead of them.

**Danny P.O.V.**

As I looked out the window in the back row of the bus, I internally sighed at what Lancer had said. I don't want to be on this stupid bus any longer than I have to be. The A-List members have been complaining about the cold for the past hour. They were too proud and 'cool' to bring serious winter clothing, so of course they were all cold.

I broke away from my thoughts when I heard Tucker's cry of despair."A few hours?! How does Lancer expect me to survive that long? There's no service, Shirley ran out of battery hours ago AND WE HAVE NO FOOD!"

Sam and Valerie rolled their eyes, and I mockingly looked at my wrist, pretending there was a watch there. I gasped theatrically. "Tuck! You just missed your 3:32 feeding time! Somebody call an ambulance!"

Tucker looked at me indignantly. Valerie giggled and took his hand to comfort him. The two had started dating a few weeks after she found out about my ghostly alter-ego. Even Sam had Valerie credit for how well she took it, and Sam is a hard girl to impress. I laughed and playfully punched Tucker's arm. Then I leaned on the window, and stared out at the growing blizzard.

~Flashback to about a month earlier~

'Gemini,' I thought as I mentally pointed out the constellation. I sat, perched on the edge of one of the tallest buildings in Amity Park. It was around 10:30 pm, and I was in ghost form, admiring the stars. 'Taurus' I smiled at the other constellation. I had been at this for about twenty minutes, testing my knowledge of the stars.

"I should to do this more often," I said to myself with a smile.

"Do what?", came a voice from behind me.

I fell off the roof in surprise, and I was hanging on to the edge of the building when the owner of the voice approached me. 'Valerie.' I thought with sudden panic.

The Red Huntress surprised me then. She laughed, and said "Only you, Phantom, would forget you can fly just as you fell off a roof."

I blushed green and was about to pull myself back onto the roof when Valerie held her hand out to me. I glanced at it suspiciously for a moment, then took it. She helped me back onto the roof.

"Hey Red. What's up?" I asked while rubbing the back of my neck, hoping to make small talk. I sat back down on the edge of the building, and let my glowing green eyes wander the street below the huntress and I. She sat down next to me before answering.

"I'm ok. I was just flying by when I saw you up here. Something on your mind?"

I was surprised by how nice she was being, she wasn't even holding an ecto-gun.

I replied, the shock evident in my voice, "I'm fine, I was just looking at the constellations." I sighed and looked up again. "I've wanted to be an astronaut since I was a kid, but I don't think I'll be able to now that I'm…." .._dead..._ The unspoken word hung in the air for a moment before I motioned at myself, my _ghostliness._ I glanced up at Valerie who was just staring off at the city.

Then Valerie, the girl who had been hunting me for _months, _turned to me and said "I'm sorry, Phantom…"

For about two seconds, my human heart stopped beating from shock. My eyes were probably as wide as frisbees. "For what?" I asked when the shock wore off slightly. Valerie wasn't the type of girl who admitted she was wrong. Did she know..?

"For not listening to you. After that thing with Danielle... I was so confused. Confused about her, confused about you...," Valerie trailed off. When she continued, there was a hint of malice in her voice, but it wasn't directed at me. "I went back, after you flew off. I went back to check on Masters." She spat the word out as if it were a curse word.

I realized then what happened. "You saw him transform, didn't you?" I asked cautiously. She nodded.

I stood up and started pacing the roof. "Ooh man this is bad… You haven't spoken to him yet have you?" I asked with fear evident in my voice. If she'd told Plasmius that she knew, he'd think I told her. He'd be pissed, to put it _lightly. _Who knows what kind of trouble he could cause Valerie and I down the road...

Valerie looked slightly confused at my fearful reaction, and a bit suspicious. "Why does it matter?" she asked, her voice mirroring the suspicion on her face.

I laughed sarcastically. "Oh, I dunno. He could only kill all my friends and family if he decides to blame me for your finding out. Except my mom of course. He wants her to be his wife, because that fruitloop is too stubborn to try online dating. I also suggested he get a cat, which I'm pretty sure he did. He probably named the damn thing after my mom too. Did I mention that he's the biggest fruitloop I've ever met? Well in case I didn't, VLAD PLASMIUS IS THE BIGGEST FRUITLOOP EVER." I yelled the last part so loud, some of the citizens walking along the street below us looked up. "And then after he's through with all the people I care about, he'll kidnap me and ship me off to the GIW to make me a lab rat for the rest of my lif- uhhh afterlife!" I finished lamely before I revealed something important. I turned to Valerie, who had been completely silent throughout my ranting.

Valerie looked so shocked that I almost laughed, but I decided against it. I didn't want to do anything that might send any negative vibes. 'Oops...' I thought to myself. I mentally face palmed, I probably should have thought about that _before_ I started sarcastically ranting to her about Vlad.

Valerie's voice tore me from my thoughts, "Your family is still alive?" She asked with a sad voice.

I froze, literally. Frost began forming around my fingers and in my hair, and the temperature around us dropped a few degrees. 'Stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid! Come on, Fenton! How did you let yourself slip like that?' I mentally berated myself.

Valerie eyed the frost curiously and took my reaction as a yes. She bombarded me with questions, "Do they live here? Do they know about you being a ghost? Who are they?" I shot her a look, and she quieted for a moment, before asking, "Are they the reason you protect Amity Park?"

I thought about my answer for a moment. "I'll answer those in order. Yes, they live here. No, they don't know I'm a ghost. I'm not gonna tell you who they are, not yet." I shot her an apologetic look, "And no. I defend Amity Park because it's the right thing to do, and because it wouldn't be overrun by ghosts at all if it weren't for me." The last part of that sentence was a bit of a test for Valerie. I assume that in her mind, there will be two choices. She can pull out an ecto-weapon and find out what I did to make ghosts invade Amity, or she could be patient and listen to what I have to say. If she passes my test, I can tell her the truth about me, about everything. I didn't want to have to lie to her anymore. I feel _so _guilty when I do.

Valerie was silent for a moment. I could see the wheels turning in her mind. Silently she looked up. "It was never your fault was it? You do try to protect Amity. You aren't evil." She asked.

"Thanks, Valerie, for being open-minded." I smiled; that's a pass for Valerie. She smiled back at me.

"Hey Valerie?"

"Yea?"

"Can you keep a secret?"

~End Flashback~

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

**Third Person P.O.V.**

Danny woke up, slowly. He left his eyes closed while he listened to the conversation his friends were having.

Valerie asked Sam, "So, how did you and Tuck convince 'Mr. Hero Complex' over here to come on this trip?" She said this while motioning at Danny.

Sam laughed. "It wasn't easy, eventually we threatened to suck him into the thermos if he didn't agree to come."

"Tough love" Valerie quipped with a smile.

"Maybe a bit, but he _really_ needs this vacation. He's been almost as 'work-aholic' as Jazz these days. He needs to lighten up." Sam leaned back against Danny's supposedly sleeping form.

"Hey! I'm not that bad. I take breaks every now and again." Danny said indignantly, surprising Sam, who'd been leaning on him. She let out an uncharacteristic squeal and almost fell off the bus seat.

Tucker laughed. "Hey, no offense dude, but I'm pretty sure the word 'relax' has erased from your mental dictionary. I can't even remember the last time you took a night off to play 'Doom' with me."

Danny chuckled at that. "Ok, you make a fair point. I'll try to relax while we're on this trip, but I'm not promising anything."

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

Back in Amity Park, Johnny 13 roared through the Amity Park streets, looking to blow off some steam. He and Kitty had just had a _huge_ fight. She was complaining about the colour of his new jacket, because apparently it clashed with her outfit. Soon the small argument escalated to insults such as 'Johnny your bike sucks.'

"Dammit, Phantom…" Johnny mumbled to himself. The kid was never around when Johnny actually _wanted_ a fight.

'Maybe he's still in school.' Johnny thought. He took a sharp right towards Casper High. Upon arrival, Johnny phased himself and his bike through the front entrance, ignoring the blaring Ghost Alarm and the screaming students. He rode through the halls until he passed a billboard. A flyer on the billboard made him pause.

"Sophomore Class Ski Trip, permission forms at front office.." Johnny read aloud.

_Oh. No wonder he hasn't shown up. Phantom's a sophomore. He must be taking a vacation._ Johnny smirked.

He drove out of the school, calculating a route that would let him successfully cut off the students. Unfortunately for Phantom, superheroes don't get vacations.


	2. How Curiosity Almost Killed the Jock

**Hey guys, I totally forgot the disclaimer last chapter, but whatever. I'll say it twice. **

**I do not own Danny Phantom,**

**I do not own Danny Phantom.**

**Enjoy. **

**Chapter 2**

**Third Person P.O.V.**

"TUCKER!" Danny cried out blushing.

"Dude, it's gonna happen, or you owe me like _over_ two hundred bucks."

Tucker had just told Danny that this ski trip was the perfect opportunity to ask Sam out. The goth, along with Valerie, had moved closer to the front of the bus to talk to one of Valerie's friends. Tucker wouldn't have started the conversation with Sam around, she would have killed him. Tucker looked over at Danny and rolled his eyes. His ever-so-clueless best friend was still blushing.

"Tucker, she's my best friend-" He was cut off by Tucker punching his arm.

He mumbled his next few words, "Ok, sooo I may have a small crush on Sam, but she doesn't like me back. If I tell her I like her it'll ruin our friendship." Danny sighed and leaned back on the seat of the bus.

"Your right. It'll _totally _ruin your friendship if you tell her, because as soon as you she'll tell you she likes you back and then you guys are going to hook up you can't be "just friends" while you guys are dating. Then you'll both grow up and get married and have a kid and if its a boy you'd better name them Tucker cause I'm pretty much the reason you guys are gonna start dating in the first place."

Danny blushed and looked out the window, trying to look anywhere but at his friend. Danny frowned. It was snowing a lot. He could barely see the road in front of them through all the snow.

"Dude," Danny turned back, as soon as the blush wore off, "you've planned farther ahead in my life then _I_ have."

"Well _DUH._ You'd never be able to figure this kind of stuff out without me dude. Oh, and by the way, if you name your kid after me, don't let Sam make them a vegetarian. Us Tuckers gotta have our meat."

Danny laughed. "Ok, fine. I'll ask Sam out sometime over the trip. I just have to wait for the right moment."

Tucker was beaming. "Thats awesome dude. You gotta let me know as soon as you do find tht moment. I gotta program exact time and place into my PDA so I have solid proof for when I collect all the money I bet on you guys."

Tucker started doing some evil cackle thing when he said the word money; which of course made Danny laugh as well. The girls, of course, chose this moment to return to their rightful spots at the back of the bus.

As she sat down next to Valerie in the backseat, Sam asked "What's so funny?"

The boys' laughing died down to a bad case of the giggles, and Tucker managed to say "Nothing."

Tucker whispered something else to Danny, and the halfa was laughing uncontrollably. Tucker smiled evilly, and Valerie looked at her boyfriend with suspicion written all over her face. Danny, she trusted. It was Tucker that made her worry.

_Oh, the irony.._ Valerie thought. _I n__ever thought I'd say this, but I trust a ghost more than I trust_ my_ own boyfriend._ Valerie laughed out loud at that.

Sam leaned over to her. "How is it that Danny, the guy who's _half ghost_, looks more innocent than Tucker right now?"

Valerie laughed even harder. Somehow, the words sounded even more bizarre coming from someone else. Sam joined in her laughing fit.

All four teens suddenly jerked forward when the bus stopped.

Sam looked up, fully alert. She calmed down a bit when she saw that it wasn't a ghost. She grumbled in discomfort; she'd had the wind knocked out of her when she'd been knocked into the back of the seat in front of her. "Dumb bus," she grumbled, then called out to Mr. Lancer, "Why are we stopping? If we're stopping for food because of Tucker's incessant complaining , I swear to God, Tucker…"

"No, Ms. Manson, we are not stopping for food." (Tucker groaned at this.) "We are stopping because we are out of gas."

The students on the bus bombarded him with questions.

A handful of kids screeched, "WHAT?" simultaneously.

One boy said, "Lancer if this is the first joke you've ever made, IT SUCKS."

Other students were silent but were repeatedly hitting their heads on the seats in front of them.

Suddenly, Kwan asked, "Buses run on gas?" A few people groaned.

"What did you think," Dash said sarcastically, "a bunch of tiny goblins ran around in hamster wheels to move the thing?"

Lester spoke up in the back, saying "You know, goblins are generally at least the size of a small toaster oven and they certainly wouldn't fit in hamster wheels."

"Who asked you, _geek._" Dash snapped at Lester. The words seemed to set off a chain reaction. The nerds/geeks all started defending their comrade, while the A-List started dishing out whatever dumb insults they could think of.

Meanwhile, in the back row of seats, Danny's friends were calm. If worse came to worse, Danny could always zoom off to bring help. _Hopefully,_ Danny thought, _it will not come to that._

"Hey, Danny?" Sam asked.

Danny broke from his thoughts when he heard his name, "Yea?"

"Is there anything you can do to keep the bus from completely freezing while we wait for Lancer to come up with something?" Sam's teeth were chattering slightly as she spoke. Danny only realized after he saw this that the bus was as cold as it was. It made sense that the bus was getting colder, the engine wasn't doing anything to keep them warm anymore.

"Oh, sorry." Danny said, "I didn't really notice how cold it was. I blame the cold ghost core." Danny rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. Danny was silent for a moment, deep in thought.

"I suppose I could use the snow falling outside. Snow can be a great insulator; if I can pull it closer to the bus it could trap some of the heat." Danny concentrated on his ghost core, while trying not to transform. Danny frowned. While he'd gotten better at using his powers in human form, it still wasn't easy. Danny felt a chill as he accessed his cyrokinesis. His eyes turned a lighter blue and glowed slightly. On the inside of the bus, the blizzard seemingly increased. There was enough snow that no one could really see outside the windows, so they assumed the snow was just falling faster. From outside the bus, the mound of snow sort of looked like an overlarge igloo.

"COOOOL!" Dash beamed at how much snow there was. "Dude," he nudged Kwan's shoulder, "we gotta check out the snow. There's probably enough there to make, like, fifty snow footballs! Then we could throw them at the nerds!"

"I dunno," Kwan sounded skeptical. "It could be dangerous. We should probably stay in the bus…"

"You know, you choose the worst moments to suddenly become smart, Kwan. It kinda makes you a killjoy, sometimes. I mean, like, less than ten minutes ago you didn't know buses ran on gas."

Kwan glared at his friend, but said nothing.

Dash smirked, victorious. "Alright, we'll go check it out when everyones sleeping, I don't want to get Lancer mad."

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

Soon after Danny used his powers on the snow, the bus returned to a warmer temperature. When Danny was confident that all his classmates and Mr Lancer had fallen asleep, he used his cyrokinesis to poke a small hole in the wall of snow, so Danny could watch for cars. If a car passed and the passengers of the vehicle saw the 'bus-gloo' (Tucker named it. Danny will not be held accountable for that monstrosity of a name.) then Danny's secret could be in serious jeopardy. Danny made sure that he had his cyrokinesis at the ready in case he had to blow the snow away quickly.

Danny waited for the better part of an hour, and was starting to get tired. Danny had to force himself to stay alert. Eventually, he couldn't keep himself awake any longer, and he let the darkness take over. He was sleeping for all of 20 minutes before his eyes snapped open. There was a hole in his wall of snow, and it wasn't his own.

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

~Right after Danny fell asleep~

Dash's eyes peeked open and he looked at his favorite punching bag. Danny was now slumped against his window, his goth friend laying almost right on top of him. Dash smirked, _Lovebirds,_ he thought to himself. He nudged Kwan. "Kwan, wake up dude. Fentoad _finally_ fell asleep. God, how much coffee did the dude drink this morning?" He heard his friend chuckle.

Dash nudged his friend once more. "Come on, you lazy ass. Get up. We're going exploring."

Kwan groaned slightly, but got up. Then Dash woke up two more of the football players, Matt and Jake, and explained to them what he and Kwan were doing. The Matt and Jake agreed to come. They all grabbed the only winter clothing they had, and stole some boots from other students. The four football players navigated the aisle, trying not to wake any of the other students. There weren't many. In fact, there were so little students that only Mr. Lancer had to come with the students. The school figured that he would be enough. Dash smirked. _Sometimes, adults could be _so _dumb_. Dash broke out of his thoughts, Matt had reached the front of the bus. Dash pointed towards the lever that opens the bus door, and Matt nodded his understanding. He pulled it slowly, in an attempt to not wake up his fellow classmates and the teacher. To the surprise of all four jocks, the doors didn't budge. Matt was a pretty strong dude.

Dash whispered as loudly as he dared at Matt. "What the hell, dude?"

Matt looked back, dumbstruck.

Dash impatiently pushed past Matt and pulled the lever as hard as he could, and the door seemed to start to open, but something pushed it back. Dash tried again and watched the door as he pulled. the door opened slightly, and Dash watched, shocked, as the _snow_ pushed it back into place. The three other jocks had watched the door as well and were shocked into silence just as Matt had been. At the back of the bus, Danny grimaced in his sleep as his cyrokinesis warned him about the attempted breach.

Dash shook off the shock and motioned for his friends to come closer. "There is no way that four football players aren't stronger than a bit of bad weather. You two," he motioned at Matt and Kwan, "when Jake and I pull this lever, you guys pull that door open the rest of the way."

The four boys got into position, and Dash counted down from three on his fingers, and after one he and Jake pulled as hard as they could. The door opened a crack and Kwan and Matt joined the struggle. The door was forced open the rest of the way, and at that moment Danny's eyes flew open, glowing blue. Danny jumped up, waking up Sam in the process. The four football players looked up in surprise, but all they saw was a light blue glow before Danny was hopping over the bus seats as if he weighed nothing. Mere seconds later he was tackling Kwan and Matt _at the same time._ The two football players let go of the door in surprise and it snapped shut. They hit the bottom of the bus with Danny pretty much on top of them. They were too shocked to move as Danny reached towards the bus control panel and turned on all the lights. Dash and Jake had not moved the entire time.

The other students and Mr Lancer all sat up groggily from the sudden light, but snapped to attention when they heard the surprisingly angry voice of Danny Fenton. "Are you guys _INSANE? _Dash, this might just be the dumbest thing you've ever tried to do, I swear to God… What if the doors had gotten stuck open? Then we'd all freeze to death because _almost no one brought serious winter clothes_! And then what if you'd all gotten stuck out there? Did you expect us all to go out there into a goddamn _BLIZZARD_ to save you? I'm pretty sure all of us who didn't try to brave the storm have enough common sense to not risk the lives of _twenty_ for _FOUR_, no matter how good at football you are! Do _ANY _of you even have _BRAINS?"_ Only the four kids he was yelling at saw Danny's eyes flash blood red. The four boys paled.

Danny felt a hand on his shoulder, and turned around to see Sam. She looked like she was holding back a fit of laughter. Danny furrowed his brow in confusion, and turned back to the four idiots in front of him. He snapped out of the angry fit he'd been in and laughed himself. The four jocks that had teased him since grade school looked as if they'd all shrunken a few inches, and were about to soil themselves. Tucker came up the aisle behind Danny and snapped a picture of the five boys and Sam with a camera that he'd pulled out of his backpack.

Mr. Lancer broke free of his shock and cried out, "TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, PEOPLE! What's going on here?!"

Danny scoffed, "Why don't you ask these 'muscle for brains'? I was just sleeping when I heard the door of the bus open, and _they_ were about to walk out of it."

Dash spoke up suddenly. "What the hell was up with your eyes there, Fen_toad_?"

Danny felt frost forming around his fingers. Danny quickly hid them in his pockets. "Uhh, whatever you saw must be a trick of the light, or somethi-" Danny was cut off by his ghost sense. He paled.

Mikey, a nerd, often picked on by Dash and Kwan, spoke up. "I don't mean to interrupt whatever this is, but there seems to be a vehicle approaching."

Danny's entire body whipped around towards Mikey, who was looking out his window.

_Huh. _Danny thought. _I must've dropped the snow when I woke up…_

Danny followed Mikey's line of vision, and sure enough there was a light approaching. _a motorcycle,_ Danny realized with a start. He could already hear the engine approaching, and there was only one headlight.

_Oh shit._ Danny thought. As the motorcycle approached, Danny could make out two glowing green eyes.

"Johnny." Danny growled.


	3. Johnny Strikes

**Thanks to all the reviewers! Your support really helps! To reply to a couple-**

**Mistress Soul- I appreciate it XD thanks**

**JH24- Thanks for the comment about my Valerie/Phantom scene- I was wondering how I did with that. :) Dash and Kwan will, of course, continue to be their charming selves and are going to get Danny in a lot of trouble soon! **

**Inviso-Al- Johnny's plans are about to be revealed, so read on!**

**Coin- I'm absolutely going to continue this story! I always liked field trip fics so this is really fun for me. I'm glad you like it!**

**Ok, on to the story.**

**I do not own Danny Phantom.**

**Chapter 3**

"Johnny." Danny growled.

Tucker and Sam looked at each other, sharing looks of annoyance.

"Great," Sam said sarcastically. "Just what we need right now."

"Any bets as to what he and Kitty are fighting about this time?" Tucker deadpanned.

The entire class, besides Valerie, (She was glaring out the window from the backseat,) looked at the trio with curiosity. Mr. Lancer was the first to question the three out loud, "You know who that is?"

"In case you couldn't tell by the glowing green eyes," Danny sighed with exasperation, "That's a ghost. His name is Johnny 13, and he's pretty common around Amity Park."

Dash perked up slightly, but he still seemed pretty shaken. His voice quivered slightly when he spoke. "The guy who usually rides his bike around with the hot, green haired ghost chick?"

Danny looked over at Dash questioningly. "Don't let Johnny hear you call her hot. They're dating and he gets _really_ jealous. I would know.." Danny muttered the last part so no one heard him. He winced when he thought back to the 'Kitty taking over Paulina's body and seducing him' incident.

Danny returned his attention, trying to formulate a plan. "Hey Val," he called out to his friend across the bus.

"Yea?" She called back.

"Do you by any chance have any..?" He cut off, not wanting to reveal anything about his ghost hunting friend.

"Just a couple pairs of Fenton Phones that I grabbed from your place." She said after looking through her bag for a moment.

"How many?"

"Eight."

Danny was silent for a moment, before he looked out the window. Johnny had stopped about 20 metres away from the bus. Johnny had stood up from his bike and looked as if he was about to approach the bus. He met Johnny's eyes, and the two ghosts just stared at each other for about 30 seconds before Danny plastered an innocent smile on his face and he mockingly saluted in Johnny's direction. He saw the ghost outside the bus frown, but he sat back down on his bike patiently. Danny's stare had successfully warned him.

Danny turned back to Valerie. "Ok, take a pair for yourself, then give one to Lancer, Dash (Dash gave him a baffled look), Mikey, Star, Sam, Tucker and I. Make sure they're all on. Hurry." Danny double checked his choices in his mind. He, Sam, Tuck, Val and Lancer were all obvious. Mikey was respected by most nerds, so he would be their group leader. Danny would have given a pair to Paulina because the cheerleaders would follow her, but Danny had realized near the end of freshman year that she was _really _irritating. He didn't have time for her incessant complaining over the radios. The second most respected cheerleader was Star, who was much less annoying, so he chose her instead. The last group that he'd needed to cover was the football players. As much as Danny hated to admit it, between Dash and Kwan, Dash was more cool headed. Danny had found that out during the 'puny' incident. Any student that didn't classify in any of his three groups could follow Lancer.

Satisfied with his choices, Danny moved to the very front of the bus so that everyone could see him. He spoke loudly and clearly, "Everyone listen up. Valerie is handing out one pair of Fenton Phones to each of my appointed group leaders. Group leaders, the Fenton Phones are a way for everyone wearing a pair to communicate. Anyone who is not a group leader, find one and stick with them. We have to get out of here, and the best chance we have is splitting up, unfortunately. Sam, Tuck, Val and I will find out what Johnny wants, and the rest of you stay here. Group leaders, if I give the word, you will take your groups out and hide in a spot nearby where you can still see the bus. Sam, Tuck, you guys check in your bags, see if you have any ecto-weapons on you. Sam, if you brought a thermos, that will do fine." Tucker found nothing in his bag but Sam found a thermos, and she grinned victoriously.

Mr Lancer spoke up incredulously, "No way. I cannot allow you kids to take a risk like this. There is a dangerous ghost outside and you four just plan on marching out there with a soup thermos?"

Danny replied calmly, while walking towards the back of the bus and opening his own duffel bag, "I can take care of myself, Mr. Lancer, and so can my friends. Besides, we're not much safer in this bus. It's not ghost-proof."

Danny pulled a small ecto-gun from his bag and tossed it to Sam, who caught it with ease. Her lips curled into a fully satisfied smirk as she examined the weapon. Danny proceeded, with no more argument from Lancer, and pulled out three more of the same weapon, putting one in the waistline of his signature jeans. He passed the remaining two to Tucker and Valerie.

"Are you kids even trained to _use _those weapons?" Mr. Lancer asked.

Valerie grinned mischieviously. She took aim from her spot at the back end of the bus in less than two seconds and fired.

There was a smoking hole in the direct center of the tree-shaped air freshener that hung from the rearview mirror of the bus.

The four strode confidently towards the front of the bus, ignoring the shocked expressions of their peers.

"If I need you guys need to run, I'm gonna yell 'Phantom' real loud into the Fenton Phones, ok?" Danny smirked before he stepped outside the bus, followed by his three best friends who were grinning ear to ear from the inside joke.

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

~Before Johnny was first spotted by Mikey~

Johnny had just left Amity Park when suddenly a ghost portal appeared out of nowhere. Having no time to break, johnny flew through it, and landed in a large room. Johnny cut the engine of his bike and looked up to see a large viewing screen.

The screen showed a large bus, driving along a deserted highway. It was blizzarding. Johnny watched, amused, as the bus started to slow down and pulled off to the side of the road and stopped suddenly. The bus had run out of gas.

"They're almost as unlucky as me," Johnny smirked.

"Indeed," A voice echoed through the room, causing Johnny to jump.

Johnny turned around to see an observant. The powerful ghost was watching the screen. Johnny paled slightly, remembering that only ghosts who had committed the most serious crimes were handed over to the observants council.

The green, one eyed ghost turned to Johnny, "Johnny 13, yes?"

Johnny looked at the ghost suspiciously. "Why am I here? I didn't do anything wrong, did I?"

"Oh, no. I just need your help." The ghost said, shrugging slightly.

Johnny's eyes narrowed. "You pretty much kidnapped me, dude. I don't exactly owe you any favors."

"You care about the well being of the Ghost Zone, don't you?"

Johnny nodded. "I guess, but if it's such a big deal you should probably leave whatever it is to some stronger ghost."

"I intend to leave the hard part to 'some stronger ghost'," The observant said this part with quotations, "I just need you to bring him here."

Johnny sighed. "Why can't you just get him yourself? Why not just sneak a portal in front of him? And, plus, I was busy before I was forced here."

"I can not make a portal big enough to transport an entire school bus to the ghost zone. I am too weak in my current state. As for your having been busy, this will not get in the way of your plans to 'blow off steam'. You and I, we are searching for the same ghost."

Johnny looked confused for a moment. He suddenly perked up in realization. The bus on the viewing screen, a stronger ghost.. '_Sophomore class ski trip'.._

"You want _me_ to kidnap _Danny Phantom?_ You might want to reconsider dude, 'cause I'm fairly sure that neither of us have the power to hold him. Isn't your council planning on crowning him the new Ghost King when he turns eighteen? Why would you even want to _try_ to do this?"

The observant sighed. "In order, then. Yes, I want you to kidnap him for me. For holding him, I have a plan. Yes he will be the King, and why I am doing this is none of your concern."

Johnny massaged his temples. "You could just ask him to come over."

The observant snorted. "You honestly think he'd agree? You're welcome to try, of course.."

Johnny contemplated this for a moment, then sighed in defeat. "Ok, your plan better be pretty damn good. My girlfriend will kill you if I don't survive this."

~Back in the human world~

Johnny had been teleported back to the human's realm by the observant that he'd encountered. The plan was risky, but Johnny knew that he didn't have a choice. When an observant asks for a favor, you don't say no. Unless you want to die. Again.

When the large snow mound came into view, Johnny was impressed.

_Well, what did you expect?_ Johnny mused to himself. _Phantom's a smart little man._

Johnny meant it, too. Using snow as an insulator to keep his companions warm was smart.

Johnny broke out of his thought's when the large mound moved, but whipped back into place with a resounding snap. Johnny raised an eyebrow, _If Phantom's the one who put up that big wall then why try to break it down? Is he hurt or something? _Someone attempted to break out a second time, but the wall of snow moved right back into place. There was a longer pause. The third time someone tried to exit the bus, they succeeded, and a large hole was made in the snow fortress. A bright blue glow shone through the snow near the back of the bus. Moments later, the wall of snow fell. Johnny had excellent night vision, so he could easily see what was going on inside the bus, even from a distance. There was a fast moving figure bounding over the bus seats. _Phantom,_ Johnny realized. _The blue glow must have been his 'ice powers' eyes..._

Phantom reached the opposite end of the bus. Johnny realized that someone had been trying to open the door of the bus. He could see two large boys holding the door open, but before they could leave the safety of the bus Phantom-in-human-form tackled them. The door snapped shut a third time when the two boys accidently let it go.

Suddenly the bus lights turned on, and Johnny could see Phantom standing menacingly over four boys, two of which were still on the ground from when they were tackled by the halfa.

Johnny felt a slight ripple in the energy around Phantom. Johnny knew immediately what it meant, he'd felt it many times before. Johnny caught Phantom's eyes flashing half-ghost was _really_ mad at those boys for trying to break out. Johnny laughed, those four dudes were in _very _deep shit.

Johnny looked back to the bus. After a minute or two of yelling at the boys, Phantom's gothic girlfriend had calmed him down and the tech dude was taking pictures of the four boys, who were probably scarred for life.

Johnny looked at the other passengers, and one of them spotted him. The kid who spotted him was a scrawny little dude with glasses. Glasses kid pointed Johnny out to Danny, and Danny's sharp eyes spotted him outside the window almost immediately. Glowing green eyes met the halfa's blue ones.

"That's my cue…" Johnny mumbled to himself, and sped off towards the schoolbus.

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

Dash looked out the window of the bus as the loser squad approached the biker ghost. Dash listened through the radios in his ears with his group, the football team, huddled around him. He wasn't really paying attention to the conversation his friends were having. He was seriously confused about Fenton. For one, what was up with his eyes? First they were glowing blue, then they flashed that creepy red. Was there like, a ghost in him or something? Then there was also he was doing _freaking parkour_ of the bus seats, and then he expertly tackled two football players _twice his size!_ He looked over at the three other boys who'd suffered Fenturd's wrath, and they looked about as freaked out as he felt.

"Have they said anything yet?" Kwan asked Dash.

Dash sighed, "Not yet..wait, here-" He took one of his Fenton Phones out. He found the button on the side that controlled the volume, and raised it as much as he could. The sound was pretty good, so most of the boys huddled around Dash could hear it. Danny spoke, and Dash's whole group could hear him.

He called out to the biker ghost, "To what do I owe the pleasure, Johnny?"

Johnny's voice was harder to hear because he wasn't wearing Fenton Phones, but those inside the bus could still mostly hear him. "The usual. Kitty's ticked off for no reason whatsoever, and so I've come to make your life a bit more miserable."

"Johnny, the longer you put off apologizing, the more pissed she's gonna get." Sam said, irritated.

"Ok, I'll go apologize. Right after I finish kicking your asses." Johnny smiled mischieviously.

Danny frowned. "Go home, Johnny. I'm not doing this right now, come find me when I'm back from my vacation. Come on, guys." Danny motioned for his friends to follow him, and they turned back towards the bus.

Johnny smirked, and said something that the students in the bus couldn't hear, and suddenly a large, black, tar-like creature shot from the snowy ground. The students in the bus gasped. The thing shot through the air and hit Sam, who was immediately stuck in the creature. Sam's head was sticking out of the black thing's chest, as well as one of her arms and one of her combat boots. The creature returned to Johnny's side, Sam in tow.

Danny stopped mid-stride. He turned around to face Johnny, and the students in the bus felt a ripple in the air around them.

**Third Person P.O.V.**

Tucker spoke to Danny calmly. "Dude, Sam's fine. She's _fine._ Let's just get Johnny and his shadow in the thermos and be done with this."

Danny didn't appear to be listening. He looked over at Sam, and his blue irises went red for the second time that night. The student's in the bus gaped.

Tucker quickly spoke into his radio, "All of you get out of there. Go! _Phantom!" _Tucker yelled the code word that Danny had meant as a joke.

Just as he did, Danny calmly began approaching Johnny, who looked alarmed at the halfa's red irises.

"Shadow! _PROTECT!_" He yelled.

Shadow threw himself, with Sam still trapped inside him, at Danny, attempting to block his path. Danny paused, his eyes still glowing red. He smiled maliciously, while pulling his ecto gun out of the back of his jeans. The students hadn't moved, and Tucker didn't blame them. This was an interesting side to Danny that none of them recognized, of course they were curious.

Danny stared down the shadow, and suddenly threw the ecto gun. It landed on the ground in front of Sam and the Shadow. No one moved. The students in the bus were confused. Tucker and Valerie were almost laughing at the expression on Johnny's face. He had a look that crossed between fear, shock and confusion. Sam looked amused. She knew what Danny was up too.

Danny raised his hands in the surrender pose. Johnny's face finally decided on which emotion to convey. It chose confusion.

"Uhhhh, dude? You ok?" Johnny asked suspiciously.

"Me? I'm fine. You? Not so much." Danny replied darkly, eyes still blood red.

Danny's hands tilted slightly, and he fired a ecto-blast, knowing he was going to have a hell of a time trying to explain it to the people on the bus later. The blast hit the gun, and the weapon exploded right in front of the shadow. The blast didn't hurt Sam because it was entirely made of ecto energy, but the bright light dissolved the shadow within seconds. Johnny doubled over as he lost large amounts of energy. Danny was about to approach Johnny when Sam picked herself off the ground. He entirely forgot his anger and he rushed to her side. His eyes faded back to blue. Johnny let out an internal sigh of relief. He stood up, and brushed the snow off of his jacket.

_Ok, Johnny._ He gave himself a mental pep talk. _You can do this man. Sound convincing._

"Ok, little man. You win, I'm gone.." Johnny said.

Danny looked at him suspiciously. "Ok…"

Johnny plopped down on his motorcycle and drove by the bus, and just as he passed it he activated his new and improved portable ghost portal. The observant had convinced Technus to fix up Johnny's old portal generator (the one he stole from the Fentons, that Danny mostly destroyed). Now, the portal it generated was way bigger.

"Shadow! Get the bus!" Johnny's shadow had reformed, and though it wasn't at it's strongest, it still managed to grab the bus full of humans. Danny had been paying attention to Sam until he heard Tuck and Val yelling and swearing at Johnny to put it down. Danny was racing at the portal as fast as his legs could carry him, and he arrived at the portal just in time for the bus to be pulled through by Johnny's shadow. Danny swore violently.

Sam, Tucker and Valerie arrived at the portal a few seconds after Danny.

"Shit." Tucker said, with a defeated look on his face.

They all shared a look and walked the the portal after their classmates


	4. The Infinite Realms pt 1

**Thanks for the continued support guys! :D**

**By the way, I have a new community up. Its pretty much all of my favourite DP stories. Those stories inspired this one, sooo if you wanna check it out, it's called ****sourpopsicles15 DP Favourites.** **(I'm really uncreative with names. You probably already knew that from the title of this story.) **

**I do not own Danny Phantom.**

As soon as Johnny stepped into the Infinite Realms he ordered Shadow to bring the bus to the Observants' Lair. The observant he'd had contact with had refered to the bus full of humans as 'security'. The halfa's heroic obsession would probably keep him in check. Shadow had just disappeared from sight with the bus when the portal rippled in preparation for new arrivals. It closed just after they passed through.

When Phantom walked into the Ghost Zone, Johnny felt a chill through his bones. He didn't know that so much hatred could be conveyed in one look.

Phantom's eyes met his, and the halfa let an unearthly growl escape his throat.

Johnny quickly did his best to speak without letting his voice shake. It was funny to think about how when the kid was fourteen he was one of the least scary ghosts out there, but now two years later you could see the depths of hell in the young halfa's eyes. They were cold and hard.

When Johnny finally found his voice, he tried his best to explain the situation. "Ok, ok wait-" He put his hands up in surrender as the teenage ghost approached, "Before you try to kill me, just hear me out."

Valerie clamped her hand over Danny's mouth, knowing full well that Danny was mad enough to use his wail if she didn't intervene. Danny made a few muffled, angry complaints. Valerie whispered in Danny's ear, "Danny, let's _not _use your wail to _completely obliterate _our only chance of finding the class. Even if said 'only chance' is a total jerk." She looked at Danny's face, checking his features. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw how much less furious he looked. Then she noticed something else. The Fenton Phones in his ears.

She looked back at Tucker and pointed at the Fenon Phones in Danny's ears with a questioning look on her face. Tucker pulled out his own Fenton Phones and examined them. Tucker was slightly confused. They should have heard something by now. The class had been weirdly silent, which meant one of two things were happening. One, the entire class was dead. That was unlikely though, the observants were smarter than that. That would put the entire ghost zone _and_ the human world in danger. The entire class dead could easily cause another _Dan_. The second possibility could be technical difficulties, their Fenton Phones could broken, or out of battery. Also, someone could blocking communication from being sent. Tucker furrowed his brow when he thought of all the possibilities. Tucker returned his attention to Valerie and shrugged.

Valerie didn't know anything about technology, so she'd leave worrying about the Fenton Phones to Tuck. Valerie looked back at Johnny and glared. "You have two minutes to convince me to not sick Danny on you, _spook._"

Johnny looked grateful, as much as he tried to hide it. "Ok, so here's the deal. I went to Amity Park looking for Phantom, here." he motioned in Danny's direction. "Because Kitty and I had a spaz. I wanted to blow off steam. I found out that you guys were on a field trip and I thought I'd come by and spice up your day." The halfa's eyes blazed green for a moment. "Before I could find you guys, a portal appears out of nowhere right in front of me while I'm driving and I can't brake in time, so I went through it. I ended up some big room with an _observant. _He tells me I gotta go get Phantom for him because they're having some big ghost zone crisis, or some such nonsense. He knew about my spaz with Kitty and he knew I was looking for him. He also you were on a field trip and stuff. He told me to grab all the humans on the trip to make sure he cooperated or whatever. None of this is my idea, or choice, like, at all. No one says no to the Observants. It was totally all his idea, so letting Phantom destroy me would be totally unfair."

Valerie looked at him suspiciously, but relaxed her grip on Danny. Danny, taking his chance, pulled away from Valerie, but did not attack Johnny. Sam was looking around them with a calculating look on her face.

Tucker asked the question that was going through all of their minds. "Why do they want Danny?"

Johnny just shrugged. "I dunno. He didn't give me any details other than how to get you guys here. Now, we just have to go on foot to the observants' place."

Sam and Valerie shared a look, having a silent conversation. Valerie was still suspicious, but Sam was giving her a look that asked, _What other choice have we got? We are in the middle of nowhere! _

Valerie finally gave in. "Fine. Lead the way."

Danny looked at his friends incredulously.

"Are we _seriously _trusting this guy after he kidnapped our _entire class?_" Danny complained while glaring at Johnny, who seemed to shrink a few inches.

"We don't really have any other option." Sam said.

Danny transformed. His voice took on its ghostly echo so he sounded even darker when he said, "You guys could let me beat Johnny to his second death."

"Danny…" Sam sighed, exasperated.

"Actually, that is a valid option. I know where we are in the ghost zone, so we're close to the Far Frozen. They'd be happy to help get the rest of the class back." Tucker said.

Sam looked at him, shocked. "How did you know where we are?"

"Easy," Tucker snorted. "They have really this awesome steak-like stuff at the Far Frozen that you can't find in the human realm. I can smell it." Tucker smiled. He sniffed around, and suddenly got a confused look on his face. "I smell something else too. Prime rib.."

Danny snorted. "That's me."

"Meat connoisseur. Meat streak, sixteen years strong and counting!" Tucker thrust his fist in the air theatrically.

"Except for the Blood Blossom incident." Valerie snorted.

"Danny! Why'd you tell her about that?" Tucker complained.

"Don't look at me, dude. That's an embarrassing story for me too, I wouldn't tell her. I mean, who gets taken down by a bunch of flowers?" Danny winced slightly at the memory. Both boys looked at Sam accusingly.

Sam and Valerie giggled.

Johnny cleared his throat awkwardly. "Hey, dudes. I hate to break this up, but we should probably get going."

Danny glared at him. "They're still deciding whether or not they're gonna let me wail you out of existence, so shut up."

"I, for one, want to figure out why they want Danny in the first place. I think we should go with Johnny." Sam said.

"That's a good idea. Besides, who's to say they won't just keep coming after us? We should just find out what they want." Valerie agreed.

"Sure, why not." Tucker concurred.

Danny groaned, his green eyes dulling slightly.

"You gonna behave, Danny?" Sam asked smirking.

Danny looked at her mischieviously. "Maybe."

Sam giggled, and Johnny frowned suspiciously.

Johnny suddenly remembered something, and perked up. He reached into a satchel attached to his bike and pulled out a length of glowing, green rope. He tossed it over to Valerie, who caught it by reflex.

"A gift from the observants?" Danny deadpanned.

"I never got to thank you for that blow to my shadow earlier." He snorted sarcastically at Danny. "Plus, Kitty would be pretty pissed at me if I got severely injured or killed on this trip, sooo.." Johnny caught Valerie's eye and motioned at Danny.

Sam was fuming. "I don't think so Johnny, following you is a leap of trust as it is. We aren't about to make it worse by disabling our biggest asset too." Sam looked thoughtfully at the length of rope for a moment before speaking again. "Besides, that doesn't look strong enough to hold him.

Johnny shrugged. "I was hoping that the fact that we have your classmates would dissuade him from trying." The subtle threat did not go unnoticed by anybody.

Danny would have attacked at that moment, but Sam held him back.

"If we attack Johnny, the observants might hurt the class. Let's just cooperate for now, for their sake. Ok?" Sam reasoned. Her voice was (purposefully) just loud enough for Johnny to hear with his enhanced ghost hearing.

Danny sighed defeatedly while Sam reached over to Valerie and took the glowing rope.

The two girls worked together to trap Danny's arms behind his back. Danny stood still for his friends, but was glaring at Johnny the whole time.

While Johnny was distracted by Danny's death glare, Sam inconspicuously pulled a pocket knife from her boot and slit the rope slightly. Danny, of course, felt the change in the strength of the rope almost immediately and hid a smile.

She leaned in close and whispered to Danny. "Could you break that if you wanted to?"

Danny flexed his wrists a bit, stretching the ghost-proof ropes. He quickly stopped when the he rope almost gave way. He nodded to Sam and looked back over at Johnny, who was oblivious to the exchange between he and Sam. Valerie and Tucker, though, had seen the back-up plan.

When Johnny returned his attention to the four teen's, he looked way more relaxed. Danny withheld a smirk. He instead chose to look back and smile at Sam.

Valerie looked at Johnny with mild irritation. "Satisfied?"

Johnny considered going over to check how well the halfa was restrained, but decided against it. After all, the halfa could turn out to be stronger than the ropes and free to attack Johnny at close range.

With that, Johnny let his motorcycle dissolve and the five began their hike to the Observants' Lair.

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

Mr. Lancer sighed. He, along with most of his students, were stuck in a bus, being dragged through the Infinite Realms by a large shadow creature. He stood at the front of the bus, trying to calm his students down. Most of the students hadn't stopped screaming since they entered the portal. Others were probably in shock induced silence.

Eventually, he couldn't take the noise anymore. He took out his Fenton phone and put it right in front of his mouth like a microphone. Then he yelled into it as loudly as he could, "For the love of Hamlet, SHUT UP!"

The group leaders winced as Lancers voice came through loud (very loud) and clear through the small radios in their ears. They were silenced, and soon their groups followed their lead.

"Ok." Mr. Lancer spoke with a calming tone, "Everything will be fine. The four students who were outside will find help. They'll send some ghost experts in to retrieve us. Heck, maybe even Phantom will save us." The females all squealed excitedly at this.

Paulina spoke up, "Of course Phantom will save me! We're soul mates! He'll come save me then we'll get married and he'll carry me off into the sunset and-" she was cut off as most of the other students groaned and rolled their eyes.

Dash shivered. "I just hope they don't send the Fenton's. For one, they'll mess up. Secondly, they'll probably bring Danny.." The jock visibly shivered, along with Kwan, Jake and Matt.

"God," Kwan said, "If I ever see him again, it'll be too soon." The three other jocks nodded in agreement.

"So Fenton scares you guys now? What has the world come too?" Paulina mocked.

"We're not scared. He's just.._creepy_. Like, you should have seen his eyes. For like two seconds I thought they were _red_ he was so mad." Jake said.

"You too?" Kwan asked incredulously.

Their conversation broke off when another voice when a growl resounded through the Fenton Phones. It didn't even sound human. Dash still had one of his Fenton Phones out and at top volume, so everyone heard the sound.

"Great Gatsby!" Mr. Lancer looked through the windows of the bus, wondering if the sound had come from outside. When he saw nothing, he was confused. The growl had sounded as if it were right next to him. The students also looked around in confusion.

Then, Dash, of all people, realized, "It came from the radios!"

Mr. Lancer thought about that for a moment, before realizing what was going on. That growl could not have been from the human world. No animal could make such a sound. So whoever was wearing the Fenton Phones that had transmitted the growl must have been inside the ghost zone. The only other people with the radios were..

"_Shit!_" Lancer cursed, surprising the other occupants of the bus. "The other four must have followed us into the ghost zone!"

No one spoke.

Suddenly, a voice broke through the speakers of the Fenton Phones.

"Ok, ok wait-" there was a pause, "Before you try to kill me, just hear me out."

"That sounded like that biker ghost that brought us here.." A jock named Cody commented.

There were a few muffled noises. Suddenly another voice came through.

"Danny, let's _not _use your wail to _completely obliterate _our only chance of finding the class. Even if said 'only chance' is a total jerk."

"That was Valerie! I'd know her voice anywhere" Star cried excitedly, happy to hear her old best friend was ok. Nathan swooned in the background.

"You have two minutes to convince me to not sick Danny on you, _spook._"

"Ok, so here's the deal. I went to Amity Park looking for Phantom, here because Kitty and I had a spaz. I wanted to blow off steam. I found out that you guys were on a field trip and I thought I'd come by and spice up your day. Before I could find you guys, a portal appears out of nowhere right in front of me while I'm driving and I can't brake in time, so I went through it. I ended up some big room with an _observant. _He tells me I gotta go get Phantom for him because they're having some big ghost zone crisis, or some such nonsense. He knew about my spaz with Kitty and he knew I was looking for him. He also you were on a field trip and stuff. He told me to grab all the humans on the trip to make sure he cooperated or whatever. None of this is my idea, or choice, like, at all. No one says no to the Observants. It was totally all his idea, so letting Phantom destroy me would be totally unfair."

Everyone on the bus was silent while letting this sink in. Billions of questions raced through their minds. Phantom was here with Valerie. Were Danny, Sam and Tucker there too? Why would Valerie come in here with Phantom? That was pretty much suicide!

Dash spoke up suddenly. "Did anyone else notice something when Valerie called Johnny 'spook'?"

Mikey gasped. "Your right. She sounded a lot like the Red Huntress didn't she? Maybe that wasn't Valerie at all.. Maybe that was- " He was cut off when a new voice broke through the Fenton Phones. Tucker.

"Why do they want Danny?"

There was static, so Johnny's response was cut off.

When the static died down, Danny was heard. "Are we _seriously _trusting this guy after he kidnapped our _entire class?_"

"We don't really have any other option." Sam said.

The class took in the new revelation. The entire geek squad was here. The Red Huntress might be here, and Phantom might be here. Their last suspicion was confirmed as the next sentence broke through.

"You guys could let me beat Johnny to his second death." The Fenton Phones went back to static. This time, the static remained. They wouldn't overhear anymore of the conversation.

Most of the girls on the bus squealed in delight, despite the ending to their eavesdropping session. The students all spoke to each other excitedly, Phantom was here to save them.

No one even noticing how similar Fenton and Phantom's voices were. Fortunately for Danny, the ghostly echo in Phantom's voice hid the similarity.

The chatter of the students was cut off when the bus jerked forward in the air. The students all felt weightless for a moment before the bus hit the ground on its wheels. The large vehicle rolled for a moment before coming to a stop.

"Is everyone ok?" Mr. Lancer asked.

They were lucky, the only injury was Star. She'd broken her wrist when the fell, but she would be ok. The students all looked outside the bus windows, and were shocked to find themselves in some sort of courtroom. There was a large, green, one eyed ghost floating casually in front of the bus. He was wearing white robes, and had a black cloak. The cloak had old trim and a large collar that made him all the more intimidating. Everyone in the bus was shocked silent. The ghost councilman spoke.

"Greetings, humans. Welcome to the Infinite Realms."


	5. The Infinite Realms pt 2

**Hey guys. Thanks for the reviews and stuff. I love reading them :D **

**This is going to be a really short chapter, and it's sort of an info-dump. You should read it anyways, though, just to find out what's going through the Observant's head.**

**Quick recap of last chapter-** Danny and company are off to the Observants' lair. The class is pretty confused. They overheard a bit of a conversation between Danny, Sam, Val, Tucker and Johnny. They don't know about Danny or Valerie's secrets yet but from what they heard over the Fenton Phones they believe that Phantom and the Red Huntress are both there to help. The Fenton Phones on the bus got out of range and the bus was dropped off by shadow at the Observants' place.

**Soo yea. Enjoy and tell me what you think!**

**I do not own Danny Phantom.**

"Greetings, humans. Welcome to the Infinite Realms." The Observant said.

The door of the bus glowed green for a moment before popping open.

"If you would kindly follow me," The Observant spoke calmly and reassuringly. The humans filed out of the bus, but Lancer stepped up to the front of the group before they walked any further with the ghost.

Mr. Lancer asking, "Why have you brought us here?"

The Observant was silent for a moment, trying to decide what and what not to tell them "I believe you all know a ghost called 'Danny Phantom'?"

Most of the students looked at him incredulously. What did Phantom have to do with this?

When no one else answered the ghost's question, a girl named Emily spoke up. "Yea, we do. He's a ghost that hangs out around Amity Park. He helps people all the time. We kinda look up to him."

The Observant seemed to chuckle at that. "Do you, now? I seem to remember a time where he was an enemy of your town. In fact, I remember multiple times. It seems that no matter how much good he does, one small mistake makes him an enemy again. Am I wrong?"

Mr. Lancer kept his face neutral, even if he was slightly offended at the ghosts words. "They were a bit more than 'small mistakes'. He kidnapped our mayor and stole all sorts of gold and jewels. He even tried to ruin Christmas once. I'd say he's given us enough reason to not fully trust him."

The Observants neutral expression mirrored Lancer's. "The mayor incident was a setup. A rather nasty ghost called Walker arranged the whole thing to destroy Phantoms reputation. He was being controlled by a human when he stole all those goods. As for the Christmas incident, it was once again another ghost. You all really should give the boy more credit."

"How do you know so much about him?" Dash asked.

"I am a good friend of his mentor, Clockwork. Clockwork often tells me tales of his endeavors in the Human Realm." He cut off there. He looked at the humans, who all looked exhausted and confused.

The Observant considered this, and said, "Why don't we continue this conversation elsewhere? I have a guest room prepared. I can have your bags from the bus delivered there as well."

The humans were too tired and cold to bother being suspicious. They all nodded their consent and followed the Observant out of the courtroom.

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

The Observant led the humans through the maze of hallways into the guest rooms. The humans all collapsed onto either a bed or a couch. A few grabbed blankets. Mr. Lancer sat on a couch and the Observant joined him.

"I don't believe we were properly introduced. William Lancer." Mr. Lancer held out his hand.

"I suppose you could call me anything you want, I don't really have a name." The Observant took Mr. Lancer's hand and shook it.

"What do the ghosts call you?" Lancer asked.

The Observant chuckled. "Most ghosts don't single me out. I work on the Observants' Council, and we are normally referred to as a whole. Clockwork, though, got tired of calling me 'Councilman' and often calls me Arthur."

"Good." Mr. Lancer said with a small smile. "I will call you Arthur and you may call me William."

"Agreed. Now, as to why you're all here.." He paused so students had a chance to move over to couches and chairs nearby Mr. Lancer and Arthur.

Now speaking to the whole class, Arthur said, "I truly am sorry for our methods for getting you here. Are any of you injured?"

Paulina called over to Arthur about Star's broken wrist, and he called for a medic. One arrived within minutes and was treating Star as Arthur spoke.

"To start, I must explain the problem in the first place. The entire ghost population is suffering at the hands of an unknown party. Many ghosts have been injured while others are left almost powerless. You remember I mentioned a good friend of mine, Clockwork?" There were nods at this. "He is here, in the hospital wing, along with my fellow councilmen. We are weak, and we are some of the most powerful and influential ghosts in the Ghost Zone. Many weaker ghosts have been destroyed, and others have hidden in their lairs or in the human world. Some, like Johnny 13, do not know anything about the impending threat. That is why he was the perfect candidate for the job I gave him. He was not panicking. He was coolheaded," _mostly,_ Arthur silently added with a smirk, "and therefore was less likely to make a mistake."

"So wait," Dash interrupted, "There is a ghost killing psycho on the loose in the ghost zone while Phantoms out there? We gotta help him!"

Arthur looked slightly confused. "How did you know he was in the Ghost Zone?"

"We heard his sweet, sexy voice over these fashion nightmares in Star's ears." Paulina said while swooning slightly at the thought of th Ghost Boy.

Mr. Lancer pulled one of his radios out of his ears and showed Arthur, who studied the small radio intently.

"Is it still transmitting?" Arthur asked.

"No, the transmission ceased as we approached this place." Mr. Lancer replied.

Arthur returned the earpiece to it's owner. "Anyways," he continued, "We need Phantom to help us because him, being one of the strongest ghosts in the Infinite Realms, may have a chance at defeating whatever is attacking us. You are all here to provide safety for my fellow observants and I. Phantom will arrive here, incredibly angry that I interfered with his cla- humans. He could easily destroy every ghost who was involved with the kidnapping of his humans, but he probably won't try to do so until he has you all back in his protection. You will all have to hide until we can fully explain the situation to him. When Phantom learns of our problem he will willingly stay and help because of his heroic obsession. Then you all will be sent back to the Human World immediately so that none of you are caught in the crossfire."

"Why not just ask him to come? Why not go through all the trouble having us here?" Mikey asked.

"He would not believe me. He is young and incredibly stubborn. He would have had to hear it from Clockwork himself before coming, and Clockwork is in no shape to go on such a journey. Besides, he would not have come immediately because he was.. busy. Now, he will be here very soon.

"Are you confident that he will listen to you?" Mr. Lancer asked.

"If he thinks any of you are in danger he will do anything we ask of him. If that means sitting and listening, that is probably what he will do."

"That doesn't answer my question, Arthur. Are you _confident _that he will choose to listen?" Mr. Lancer pushed.

Arthur sighed. "He will listen, unless he chooses to destroy this place brick by brick until he finds you all. When you use a ghosts obsession against them, you can never be too sure what their reaction will be. Let us cross our fingers that he chooses to be calm."


	6. The Pink Soldiers

**Hey guys, sorry I haven't updated in a while- I had to move so I've been busy. Anyways, last chapter was really short so this one is going to be really long to make up for it. Review! I love hearing what you guys think!**

**I do not own Danny Phantom.**

**Chapter 6 **

**Danny's P.O.V.**

Danny looked over his mental 'Worst Days Ever' list as they trekked through the Ghost Zone towards the Observants' lair. Third worst on his list was the day he fought Pariah Dark, second when he fought his vicious future self, and the worst was when he had to fight Undergrowth. If he told anyone about his list they would call him crazy. He nearly died both the second and the third days on his, and yet they remain second and third. The Undergrowth incident was the worst because it wasn't only him who was left almost dead. His entire town was almost dead, and he'd witnessed it firsthand. He'd seen their life forces being drained by the plants. Even worse, Sam had been used against him. So, that day, he'd nearly been frozen solid, his secret love had threatened his life and the town that he'd sworn to protect had almost lost it's entire population right in front of him and he'd almost been unable to stop it.

_Why can't my list of bad days be normal? Why can't my bad days list be more like, failed test, girlfriend dumping me, not enough money for video games? _Danny thought to himself with dismay.

Today was working its way up his list. About twenty lives were being threatened in an unknown location, and a really annoying ghost was leading him and his best friends through the Ghost Zone. Danny sighed, looking over at Johnny. The ghost looked fairly smug, though a bit on edge. Johnny tended to look over at Danny every few seconds to make sure the halfa wasn't free of the ghost proof restraints. Danny could tell he was on edge.

"Soooo." Tucker said awkwardly, breaking the silence that the group had fallen under. "Any new ghostly gossip, Johnny?"

"For once, no. I actually haven't seen many ghosts around besides Kitty and that Observant." Johnny paused, looking speculative. "It's actually kind of weird, the whole thing with the Observant. You rarely see them alone like that.." Johnny was mumbling.

"Wait-" Danny suddenly stopped walking. Johnny looked back slightly nervous. When he saw the glowing green ropes were still in place around Danny's wrists he calmed down a bit.

"What is it Danny?" Sam approached him, looking concerned.

"Since when do Observants do anything without their fellow councilmen? Well, anything big that is. I'd like to think deciding to kidnap the Ghost Prince is a pretty big move." Danny's brow furrowed. "Actually, Clockwork mentioned one Observant that he meets up with sometimes. Apparently he's the only Councilman that isn't a total ass. I think Clocky called him Andy or something.." Danny trailed off in thought.

"Not relevant." Valerie said, smirking, as she tinkered with an innocent looking bracelet that Danny recognized as an ecto blaster.

Danny chuckled a bit. "Anyways. It must be something pretty important if an Observant is willing to take action on his own."

Sam snorted and said, rather darkly, "It better be something important for causing us so much trouble."

"Danny, go on this ski trip, they said. It'll be fun and relaxing, they said.." Danny mumbled.

Tucker snorted at this, looking over at Johnny. "Well we didn't exactly plan to have the entire class kidnapped to the Ghost Zone."

"Fine, blame me. Even if it totally isn't my fault." Johnny mumbled from the front of the group. "Come on. We have to keep moving. The Observant said to be back by the end of the day."

The group continued walking.

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

"It's been _four hours_ since I've had food! _I haven't been without food for that long in my whole life!_ Also would it kill them to have some outlets around here? I can't go on without Shirley any longer!" Tucker had been complaining as if he were Paulina without her daily facial - loudly, annoyingly and incessantly - ever since the group had started walking again. Johnny was actually considering letting the gloomy chick take those ropes of Phantom just so he could shut up his friend. He brightened a moment later when he saw that that would be unnecessary.

"Tucker," Valerie glowered at her boyfriend. "If you do not shut up, I just might decapitate you."

Tucker gulped, shrinking a few inches. Danny and Sam chuckled mumbling 'oh, brother.' simultaneously. They looked at each other for a moment and their eyes met. Both blushed slightly and looked away.

"Dude." Johnny said, slowing slightly so the halfa caught up and was next to him as they walked.

"Yeah?" Danny mumbled, sounding bored.

"Like, no offense man, but your techno geek sidekick is sort of obnoxious."

Sam spoke up, having just caught up with the two ghosts. "Is that supposed to be new, somehow?"

Danny and Johnny snickered, and Tucker yelled from the back of the group, "I heard that!"

Danny suddenly felt a chill run up his spine. A chilled breath of air escaped Danny's mouth. His ghost sense. He knew it wasn't Johnny because his ghost sense had already gone off for the biker ghost. Danny looked around suspiciously, which Sam noticed.

"Oh great," she said sarcastically, "more company."

Danny spotted a few figures in the distance. He squinted. He didn't recognize them.

"Guys," he said with a sense of urgency in his voice, "get behind that boulder over there."

He motioned over at a large rock on the edge of the rock path. His human companions quickly complied, leaving Johnny confused.

"Dude, in case you forgot- you've got ghost-proof ropes on you. If anyones hiding behind some big rock it should probably be you." Johnny said.

To this, Danny snorted. He rolled his shoulders slightly, giving him slight leverage on the ropes. He flicked his wrists and the ropes snapped right where Sam had slitted them. The useless bundle of glowing green restraints fell to the ground. It had taken under five seconds for the halfa to escape. Johnny simply nodded with wide eyes and walked behind the boulder with the humans.

Danny, who was still in his ghost form from earlier, turned invisible. He floated over to the unidentified creatures, silent as a shadow. As he approached, he noticed a few things that were off. For one, they were marching as if they were soldiers. They had so much body armor that if the armor itself wasn't hot pink, the ghosts could have passed for a small army of Skulkers. Even more oddly, their eyes matched their armor. Danny had never seen that color of eyes on any ghost or human. Thirdly, they all carried ecto guns. It was high treason in the Infinite Realms to carry anti-ghost weaponry.

He hid behind a floating rock and turned visible. The bright pink army had just passed the rock so Danny was now watching them float away. He was about to float out from behind his rock to confront them when strong, metallic arms grabbed him from behind. A hand clamped over his mouth to muffle his loud, indignant complaints.

Danny brought up his leg and kicked behind him, and he heard a mumbled curse from his attacker. Taking advantage of the distraction he tried to wrench away, but the grip on him only strengthened. Suddenly the creature holding him back spoke in a hurried whisper.

"Cease your struggling, Whelp. I'm trying to save your life."

Skulker.

Danny quit trying to pull away for a moment in confusion. Skulker hadn't really bothered him in a while. The two were almost frenemies. Feeling the lack of struggling, Skulker let him go.

Danny spun around to face the ghost, angrily saying "What the hell, Skulker?"

"Come, ghost child. We will discuss this elsewhere." Skulker grabbed Danny's wrist and tried to lead him away from the marching ghosts.

Danny paused, "Wait, my humans are on the path down there. I'll go get them-"

"Ember has already found them. Now come on, before _they_ see us." Skulker motioned towards the pink army, and flew off at top speed while towing Danny behind him.

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

**Lancer's P.O.V.**

Lancer allowed himself a small smile at the scene before him.

On the opposite side of the room from himself the cheerleaders were doing each others' hair and gossiping. The jocks of course were listening to the conversation, listening for good blackmail information, most likely. The jocks of course were listening to the conversation, listening for good blackmail information, most likely.

"-and she was all, like, 'Yes way!' and he was all 'No way!'"

"No _way_!"

_"Ahh,_" Mr. Lancer thought to himself happily, _"normalcy."_

He broke out of his thoughts when panicked shouts echoed through the halls. the students in the room looked towards the door with fear in their eyes. Lancer stood up and walked over to the door, pushing it open as slowly and quietly as he could. The shouts were getting closer. Lancer jumped when an Observant floated hurriedly around the corner of the hallway towards the guest room. He couldn't tell if it was Arthur or not.

"Arthur?" Mr. Lancer asked cautiously.

"No, but I know where he is. Grab your things and come, all of you. We are under attack." The Observant Councilman looked anxious.

Dash perked up. "Is it Phantom?"

The Observant mumbled something along the lines of 'if only,' and motioned for the humans to follow him. He led them through a maze of hallways and doors, until they reached what appeared to be an airship hangar. There were several smaller vessels, all obviously equipped with weapons. In the center of the room there was one extremely large ship. The large ship was about as long as a football field and about as tall as a three story building. The Observant ran to the large ship, the humans in tow. The humans all gasped when they boarded the ship.

It looked even bigger on the inside than on the outside. Upon entrance they were in a large room with an assortment of doors and hallways leading around the ship. In the central room there were multiple screens scattered around. The humans were bewildered to find that the screens weren't attached to any form of electric source. On the screens there were the hallways they had just been traversing moments ago, but now in every hallway there were hot pink soldiers storming around with large chrome guns. On the far side of the room, there was a cockpit of sorts; complete with spaceship-like controls and a large window. There were lots of Observants arguing at the helm.

"Now! We have to leave _now!_" One Observant was yelling at another.

"But the engine is weak! Our technicians only need a few more moments and we'll be able to drive to the other end of the Realms if we need to!"

"We won't need to! We are meeting the others the Island. We won't make it there if we don't leave now. _Take off!_" The one yelling this appeared to be the one in charge.

The whole ship vibrated with the whir of the engine as they took off. The door the door they had just entered through closed behind them. The ship gave one more lurch and through the window the class could see a massive door opening. The Observant at the controls wasted no time in flying them out into the Ghost Zone.

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

When Skulker finally stopped and let go of Danny's wrist, the latter collapsed with a groan. He curled in on himself to prevent the nausea from taking over.

"Jeez, Skulker. You need to work on your flying. I'm pretty sure I almost died from motion sickness, and I can fly over two hundred miles per hour… Oh, God. There was also that stupid rock you threw me into..."

"Oh, quit your whining. It couldn't have been that bad."

Danny looked up at him, paler than usual. "Dude, that was the closest you've ever come to killing me and you've been hunting me for two years."

There was unmistakable laughter from a short distance away. He knew immediately who it was, and he smiled. Danny's eyes followed his ears, and he saw Sam, sitting on the ground with the rest of his friends. He only then noticed that his other friends were laughing too.

Tucker stood up, only to fall back down from laughter.

Sam, who had calmed down a bit, rolled her eyes at Tucker. She crawled over to where Danny was curled up, clutching his stomach and moaning.

Sam giggled a bit at the antics of her ghostly friend. "Are you actually ok? Or are you doing that stupid thing that you do where you cover up your pain and injuries with jokes-" She was cut off by Danny.

"What? I don't do that!" He protested.

Tucker was still chuckling, but he managed to make his way over, along with Valerie.

"Dude," Tucker said between laughs. " 'He who covers up his pain with jokes' could the name of your biography."

Though he knew his friends were joking, Danny sighed, turning around so his back was facing his friends. They all gasped at the sight. His suit was torn, and right under the tear, Danny was cut. The gash made its way from his right shoulder to just below his right shoulder blade. What the cut lacked in length it made up for in depth, it was bleeding quite a bit. Danny's jumpsuit was absorbing the majority of the ectoplasm/blood.

"Is it that bad?" Danny said, wincing at their reaction. "Skulker only told me, 'That's the least of your problems, Ghost Child.'" His imitation of Skulker's deep voice would have made them laugh if it weren't for all the blood soaking his suit.

"Danny how did this happen?" Sam asked sternly. Valerie fumbled with her cell phone, trying to take a picture to show Danny.

"Well, we were going along at top speed. Suddenly Skulker made a sharp right, and I got whipped into a floating rock." Danny said nonchalantly.

Valerie could only gape as Danny blew off this injury. Though she'd known of his alter-ego for a bit more than a month, she'd never really understood the full extent of the injuries Danny received while ghost-fighting. She was even more shocked when Sam whacked Danny upside the head for not being serious about his injuries.

Seeing her shocked face, Tucker kissed her on the cheek reassuringly and said, "Don't worry, Babe. This is normal for them." Tucker chuckled.

Valerie snapped herself out of the slight stupor she'd been in and took a picture of Danny's back with her phone. She handed the picture to Danny. Out of any way he could have reacted, she'd expected this the least. He seemed almost pleasantly surprised.

"Oh," He said, examining the picture with a slight grin, "I thought it would be worse. That's not that bad, though."

"Yea, Danny." Sam said sarcastically. "It'll only need stitches. Not that bad."

To this Danny shrugged, although he winced slightly at the movement. "It's not like I haven't been stitched up before. You always do a great job."

The last part of his statement shocked Valerie. "Wait, you've done _stitches _before?"

Sam smirked. "You'd be surprised at what one could learn to do over the internet."

"Whelp and sidekicks of Whelp, we have to get moving." Skulker said, approaching them.

Danny only then took in his surroundings, he hadn't even bothered to look before. They appeared to be on Skulkers Island. He noticed Ember not far away. She was fidgeting with her studded belt and looking around nervously.

Danny and company stood, Tucker helping Danny out when a wave of dizziness claimed him. Sam looked at her halfa friend and approached Skulker.

"We need medical supplies, like, soon." She said.

"We have supplies where we are going." He looked up into the skies nervously. "Now we have to get moving. Go help your tech friend carry the Whelp."

She quickly ran over to where Tucker and Valerie were struggling to keep Danny conscious. In the end, the three uninjured teens took turns carrying Danny piggyback, which was surprisingly easy. He was lighter than a normal human.

The small group traveled for about half an hour, before coming up to the large skull shaped rock on the island. They walking in through the teeth, and were greeted by what must have been a hundred ghosts in Skulkers surprisingly huge living room. Murmurs arose through the crowd of ghouls. The Ghost prince appeared to be injured. Had _they _attacked him? Skulker and Ember parted the crowd and kicked a couple of ghosts off a couch. Tucker, who'd been carrying Danny last, put his now unconscious friend on the couch face down so they could treat his wound. Sam moved his face so he could breathe. Now in human form, Danny was much more vulnerable and his friends had to be even more careful about his treatment.

A random ghost that none of Danny's friends recognized floated over to them with a case of medical equipment. As soon as the case was open, Sam was readying the needle. Tucker set to cleaning the wound and Valerie prepared the bandages.

When Sam was one fixing up the needle, she reached over to Danny and pulled his red and white t-shirt off. There were scars scattered all over his chest, big and small. Valerie stopped what she was doing at the sight. Many ghosts were shocked silent and were teary eyed. Not child should ever have this many scars. The boy wasn't even two decades old and he had more scars than half the population of the room put together. Valerie though, was especially crushed, knowing she could have caused a few of these herself.

She looked up at Tucker, who was looking at her sympathetically. He knew what she was wondering. "He didn't blame you. Not ever."

That confirmed it for Valerie. She'd caused a scar. Maybe even more than one. Valerie teared up at the thought. Tucker pulled her into a hug. After a few moments she broke away, tears falling.

"Which ones?" She asked Sam, knowing Tucker wouldn't be totally honest if it would hurt her. She wanted to know the full truth.

Sam looked from Valerie to Danny. She sighed. "There are one or two small ones of his chest. One on his leg. and this one here-" Sam ran her finger along a long scar that ran from one side of his waist to just below his ribs on the other side.

Valerie let out a sob. Tucker pulled her back into his arms. Suddenly, a low sigh was heard right in front of them on the couch.

"I take it you guys were admiring my trophies." Danny said in all seriousness.

Valerie raised an eyebrow.

"I decided awhile ago that scars are a bit disheartening. So, instead, I call them trophies. They're kind of the trophies I get for beating death." Danny chuckled. "I also call them trophies because the people who gave them to me, whether or not they meant to, boosted my confidence; kind of like what trophies do. They encourage you to keep going. If I'd been scared of getting injured and dying all the time when I first started ghost hunting, I wouldn't be where I am today. I wouldn't have taken on Pariah Dark. Frankly, I was such a wimp back when I got my ghost half I'm not even confident I would have taken on the box ghost." Danny's chuckled morphed into a smirk. "The point is, every single mark I got made me more confident I could survive. It made me confident enough for me take the stupidly impossible risks that save lives. So, yea, looking at my scars does bug me a bit, but it also saves lives. That has to count for something, doesn't it?"

Valerie looked confused. Danny sat up on the couch with a wince, despite Sam's protests. He searched his bare chest for a moment before he found the scar he was looking for. He smiled at Valerie. He pointed at a short, thin scar right over his ribcage.

"You remember the first time you were ever in the Ghost Zone? It was right here on Skulkers Island. We were chasing after a flour sack with a smily face on it." Both he and Valerie smiled at the memory. "When I got hit with the dart and I was paralyzed, you had to drag us both away from Skulker and I got this from a rock." He paused looking speculative. "The rocks here in the ghost zone must really hate me, huh?" He chuckled and Sam smacked his leg, telling him to get to the point. "Anyways, so a couple months later, Amity Park is dragged into the Ghost Zone. I was terrified. I was in my bedroom, I looked at that scar and said 'Well, if I can survive sharp evil ghost rocks, I can survive this." He ended with a goofy smile.

All his friends and a few ghost listening in broke out laughing.

"You liar, Danny." Valerie said, still feeling bad, but Danny had managed to cheer her up a bit.

"Yea, your right. I'm pretty sure I have used this scar though. Not to convince myself to go fight Pariah. Probably to convince myself that if I didn't go save some poor souls' boxes from the Box Ghost that Karma would give me another one of these little guys to spite me."

This earned a few more laughs from his friends and the surrounding ghosts.

"But seriously, Valerie, I never blamed you. You couldn't have known. With all that junk my parents always spout about 'Ghosts don't feel pain' and stuff, I would have probably acted the same way as you." He said softly.

Valerie smiled. She walked over to Danny and gave him a hug. For a few moments nothing happened. Then Danny hissed in pain.

"Oh God, I forgot. Sorry Danny!" Valerie said, looking upset again.

Danny laughed. "It's fine, Valerie. Ok, Sam, you ready to get this stitched up?"

Sam moved over a bit so Valerie could walk back over to Tucker.

Then she smiled at Danny, saying "Ready when you are."

Danny lay back down on the couch so Sam could do her work. Danny braced himself for the discomfort when, before Sam could do anything, Skulkers Island began to shake.


	7. Skull Rock

**Hey guys! **

**This chapter is a bit different than the others. We see Sam's point of view, and turns out she's got a ton of bottled up angst. Review and tell me what you think of it!**

_**Author's random notes and stuff that you should probably read**_**: **

**-I'm starting up another story- (see my profile for details) but I'm still gonna keep going with this one too. I'll try not to, but if I start getting slow with this one, just send me an angry PM and I'll speed up the updates here!**

**-Congratulations KageOfNights! You're my 50th story favourite! :D That's pretty awesome considering this is my first story. Thanks so much for the continued support guys! **

**-**_**HUGE thanks to everyone who reviewed!**_ **Hearing what you guys think really helps!**

**I do not own Danny Phantom.**

**Chapter 7**

**Third Person P.O.V.**

The ride in the enormous vessel had been short, and soon they found themselves landing on an oddly shaped, floating island. The engine was cut off and the Observants sent a few scouts ahead to make sure it was safe. The students and Mr. Lancer were all helping unload the ship. The Observants had brought plenty of supplies.

The class had just finished and were sitting outside the vessel (others were standing to 'not be dirty when the ghost boy arrived to save her because they're soul mates *cough* paulina *cough again*), when Arthur limped out of the vessel. They hadn't seen him in a while, not since he'd last spoken to them.

"Arthur?" Mr. Lancer asked just in case.

"Yes, it's me." He replied. The Observant sounded exhausted.

"Are you ok, dude? You sound like shit." Matt asked. Emily elbowed him.

The Observant chuckled good-naturedly. "I suppose I do. Don't fret; I'll live." He paused for a moment in contemplation. "In the loosest sense of the word, of course." The Observant didn't have a mouth, but if he had, he probably would have been grinning.

A chuckle was heard from the vessel. "I always admired your ability to make jokes in a crisis, Arthur." A ghost floated out of the boat. He had blue skin and red eyes, and a scar running across his left eye. He wore a purple cloak with a black gear holding it in place. There was a grandfather clock in the ghost's chest. Before their eyes, he morphed from a middle aged man to an elderly man within seconds.

"Ah, Clockwork. How are you feeling?" Arthur asked.

Mr. Lancer remembered this Clockwork ghost, Arthur had mentioned him. He was supposedly Danny Phantom's Guardian/Mentor.

Lancer chuckled when he realized he wasn't the only one who remembered what Arthur had said.

"DUDE! You're that guy that knows Danny Phantom!"

"Is he ok?"

"How often does he talk about me? I'm Paulina! He and I are soulmates!"

Several students were pestering the ghost, when suddenly there was a shout-

"Silence!" Arthur yelled angrily.

The teenagers were silent then, and Mr. Lancer stepped forward.

"I apologize for the behavior of my students, Clockwork. They just wanted to learn a bit more about their hero." Lancer said calmly.

Clockwork chuckled. "If they can stand to wait about ten minutes they can ask him these questions themselves. I do believe we were about to leave to go meet him and a few other surviving ghosts." He changed from an elder to an infant, once again surprising the humans.

The students recovered from the surprise of the ghosts transformation and all cheered up at the news he brought them. They were going to meet Phantom. Every student, even Paulina, grabbed some supplies to carry if it meant they could leave faster.

As soon as the scouts returned, the head Observant used some kind of ghost energy to shrink the vessel. When he was done, it was small enough to fit in someone's pocket. The humans could only gawk. The head observant looked tired from using so much energy, but he was satisfied. Had he not been strong enough to make that spell work, anyone looking for them would have seen the ship. Thankfully, that was no longer an issue.

The group found a path that seeed to lead towards the center of the island, where a large, skull shaped rock stood above the trees. They began following the path.

The group had been only been walking for five minutes, maybe less, when they were ambushed.

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

**Sam's P.O.V.**

(About half an hour earlier)

Sam choked down her tears for the umpteenth time that day. Ever since Danny had showed them his injury, she'd been feeling awful. She hated when Danny got hurt. She knew that it wasn't always her fault that Danny got hurt, but in the back of her mind, there was always that voice that sneered and asked her, 'Would that had happened if you didn't send Danny into the portal in the first place?'

She'd decided long ago that she was going to help him through it no matter what, and that she was not going to burden him with her guilt. She had her own version of Danny's covering pain with jokes. She covered her sadness with her gothic sass and sarcasm. She would smack him for not being more serious about his injuries. She would stitch him up and not cry. She would help him comfort Valerie, because if it weren't for her creating Phantom, the huntress wouldn't have been put through so much pain either.

She would not cry in front of Danny. She wouldn't do that to him.

Now, Danny was asking her with a smile if she was ready. She would smile back through her pain and tell him she was ready when he was. She looked back at Tucker. She could see the sympathy in his eyes. He knew what she was thinking.

~Flashback~

About three months earlier, at about 2:30 am, Sam woke to tapping on her window. She got up and rushed to the window, and there was Danny, leaning heavily on the window sill. He was paler than normal. She motioned for him to come on in, and he fell through the glass intangibly. When he landed on his side, he winced. He made a stupid joke about dropping in. Having had almost two years of experience, she knew what that meant. She ran to grab her first aid kit from underneath her bed. Danny had pulled himself onto one of the couches in Sams room. He lay flat on his face, moaning slightly from the pain. Then Sam noticed the blood covering this torso.

"Danny. _Danny._ Keep your eyes open. Look at me Danny, just keep looking at me." Sam instructed as the cut the top part of his jumpsuit off, revealing what looked like a wound from some kind of knife. She jumped slightly when blinding rings of light appeared around Danny's waist, signaling the return of his human form, and his unconsciousness. She got to work quickly, knowing that his healing slowed in his human form. She quickly cleaned the wound, choking back the nausea she felt. She bandaged it up as well as she could, but it kept bleeding heavily. She choked up, knowing what she had to do. She returned to the medical kit and prepared the needle, threading it quickly, and getting to work. That was the first time she'd ever stitched one of Danny's wounds. What she was feeling as the needle passed through Danny's flesh was confusing. It was a mixture of fear that she would make a mistake, and disgust that Danny had been this injured and she hadn't been at the scene helping him with whatever attacked him. She moved quickly, doing the best job she could of keeping the stitches even and precise, despite her shaking.

The second she tied off the thread, she ran into the bathroom that was attached to her room and threw up into the tub. When her nerves calmed slightly, she went back to Danny, and finished dressing the wound. She then put a blanket around him and watched him, making sure he was ok. Just looking at him like this made her tear up. She called Tucker, who thankfully picked up his phone. She tried to tell him what happened, but before she could tell him anything she broke into sobs. Tucker, who was at home in his bed, listened to his best friend cry. She'd been crying into the receiver for about ten minutes before she could tell him that she'd had to give Danny stitches. He rushed over to comfort his friend.

Since that night, Sam had not cried once. She decided that she would not cry again until the day Danny died because she had to be there for him. She would stay strong for him.

~End Flashback~

Sam was just about to start tending Danny's wound when the island started to shake. She quickly pulled the needle away so she wouldn't accidently stick him. He looked up at Skulker, who had pushed his way through the crowd, in confusion.

"What's going on Skulker?" He asked from the couch.

"A large vehicle has just landed. It is either _them,_ or more ghosts seeking refuge." Skulker's expression was blank. "Either way, we don't have time for these human methods of healing. We must go find out who it is, and if they're a threat, eliminate them." He pulled a vial from his belt and tossed it to Sam. The vial contained a glowing blue liquid.

"What in the hell is this, metal head?" She asked.

Skulker bristled, but was patient with the girl. "It'll heal him faster than human treatments will. Now hurry up and pour a drop on the Ghost Prince's wound so he can go deal with who or what just landed in my backyard."

Sam looked at Danny, who was looking at the vial with curiosity.

"Isn't that..?" Danny began, before trailing off.

"It is. Plasmius would be wise to upgrade his security."

Danny laughed at that. He knew about Skulker and Plasmius' quarrel. He'd seen it firsthand when the two had nearly destroyed the park before he'd arrived. Danny nodded to Sam, who poured a drop over his wound. To Sam's relief, the drop seeped into Danny's wound, healing it almost instantly. She was even more relieved when she realized that she wouldn't have to stitch up her secret love anymore.

Danny waited for a moment, and suddenly felt a rush of energy. He flew up off of the couch, doing a somersault in the air before landing gracefully on his feet.

Danny stretched his muscles a bit, before whistling in admiration. "Wow. Vlad wasn't kidding when he said this stuff was a miracle worker. Maybe I should listen to his ranting more often." Sam offered him the vial without a comment, and he took it.

Sam grinned with relief, while Tucker and Valerie just smiled. They were all exceptionally pleased that their friend was feeling better.

Danny cracked his knuckles and said with a slightly malicious grin, "So, what's this about someone new on the island?"

"Oh my _God,_" A new voice sneared, "You aren't seriously going out looking like that, are you?"

Danny turned to see Kitty and Johnny walk into the room. It had been Kitty who'd spoken.

"Where have you been?" Danny asked Johnny.

"I had to find Kitty. When Ember told me about the big threat or whatever I left to get her."

Tucker finally spoke up, after having been uncharacteristically silent since they got to Skulker's place. "The Infinite Realms are facing total annihilation and you're seriously worried about Danny's wardrobe?" He asked Kitty incredulously.

Danny looked at himself before laughing. "Her concern is justified. I'm scarier than Skulker right now." His friends laughed with their friend. The Halfa was covered in a mixture of blood, ectoplasm, leaves and dirt. He looked like he'd been to hell and back.

Sam perked up. "Good thing I brought extra clothes, then, isn't it?"

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

Danny, Skulker, and a few other ghosts prowled through the bushes. They were searching the island, but they hadn't seen any sign of the vessel or its inhabitants.

Danny sighed and asked Skulker if he was sure someone had landed here.

Skulker snorted, "What else could have caused that quake from earlier?"

"Maybe they left?" A random ghost pointed out.

"Highly unlikely. That would have caused another quake." Another said.

The ghosts continued their conversation while they followed Danny. He toned them out and listened to the forest around them. He used his enhanced hearing so that he could hear if a twig snapped a half a mile away. Suddenly, he heard something. A voice.

Danny held up a fist, an action telling them to stop. The ghosts all froze, their conversation ceasing. Danny strained his ears until he could clearly hear the voices.

"Why are we not walking, Whelp?" Skulker asked loudly.

Danny winced, motioning for him to quiet down. "I hear voices; probably our visitors..." He said.

Skulker brightened. "It must be just ghosts seeking refuge then. The pink soldiers don't speak. They just attack."

The voices were getting louder. More and more footsteps came within earshot.

Danny whispered to Skulker. "Its a big group. There are twenty to thirty walking, and probably more floating."

He paused, reaching out with his senses. He could feel movement in the ectoplasmic currents of the Ghost Zone skies. He learned this as he spent more and more time in his future kingdom. He followed the movements, estimating how many ghosts were floating.

"About fifty floating." Danny said.

He looked back at the small army of ghosts he had with him. Skulker had picked them himself; they were all trained and ready to fight.

"Ok, guys. So heres what we're going to do. Scree," Danny picked one of the ghosts that he trusted. "You take a team of five out there to greet them, the rest of us will scatter around in the bushes and cover you guys. If they don't try to attack, great. You guys lead them back to the skull and we'll cover your backs. If they don't come the easy way, the rest of us will step in."

The ghosts all scattered. Scree picked five of his friends and they all sat in the bushes, waiting for the right moment to come out. When the group was close enough, five ghosts, including Scree, stepped out of the treeline. Danny's Ghost sense went off when the group they were ambushing were in range.

There were a few girly screams in the crowd. When Danny got a good look at the group, he saw that the majority of the crowd was made up of the Observants. Danny was fuming from his spot in the bushes. He wanted to go give them a piece of his mind and find out where his humans were, but he knew that he should wait. Wait and see their reactions to Scree and his group of merry men, over there.

He had to give the five ghosts credit. With the slight fog and their dark armor, the group looked terrifying. He heard a few whimpers in the crowd, and turned confused. Then he saw them.

His humans.

Skulker, who was crouching next to him in the bushes, whispered "Are those not your humans, there?"

"Yes. Yes they are my humans." Danny said this with a deadly calm before he stepped out of his hiding place. Everyone's eyes whipped towards him.

"Ok." He said to Scree and his group, "New Plan."

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

When Danny Fenton emerged from the foggy trees, the humans were shocked. What was Fenton doing there? Where was the rest of the geek squad? Where were the Huntress and Phantom?

When he blew off the terrifying ghosts that blocked their path, their eyes bugged out of their heads.

The class (and Mr. Lancer) took a good look at Fenton.

He had changed. Gone were the ratty jeans and t-shirt they all recognized. This new Danny wore a pitch black muscle shirt and cargo pants. The cargo pants were also black with white zippers. Danny had a chain around his neck with a stainless steel DP insignia and a few spiked bracelets covered his wrists.

When he looked at the Observants with a glare. The Observants were nervous; fully aware that in their weakened state there was no guarantee that they could defend themselves against the enraged were mixed emotions from the humans. The jocks who hadn't felt Danny's wrath earlier were shocked. Fen-turd actually looked kind of scary with the dark look and glare thing he had going on. For Matt, Jake, Dash and Kwan, the glare chilled them to the bone, even if it wasn't directly at them. They felt sorry for the Observants. Most of the girls were only thinking about how hot Danny looked without the baggy clothes. None of the humans failed to notice that Danny wasn't as scrawny as they'd originally thought. The shirt he had on now showed off well toned muscles.

As Danny told the first five ghosts 'New Plan', many more ghosts emerged from the trees; including the mechanical ghost, Skulker, who the humans recognized from Amity.

All of the ghosts gathered behind Danny, and when he spoke, there was silence.

"The High Council of Observants. A pleasure to see you. I hope you've come to return the humans; if not, we're just going to have to take them."

Arthur stepped forward, speaking in a language the humans did not understand. "_**Your majesty, please listen to reason. We needed them because we need you. We were never going to hurt them. That is against our laws."**_

Danny spoke back to him in the same language. He sounded angry. "_**You could have **_**asked. **_**If the Ghost Zone is in this much trouble I would have come on my own. You didn't have to send Johnny to kidnap me." **_Danny smirked."_**That ghost proof rope sucked by the way. I broke out in like, three seconds**_**.**"

Arthur looked nervous. "_**All due respect Prince Daniel-"**_

"_**Danny."**_

Arthur corrected himself. "_**All due respect, Danny, would you have come as quickly as you did if we'd just asked you to come? This problem is occurring right now, after your vacation it might have been too late. Besides- you wouldn't have believed me. You would have thought it was a trick of some sort. Clockwork himself would have had to tell you, and he was in no condition to make such a journey-"**_

"_**I assure you, Prince Phantom," **_The head Observant interrupted. "_**This councilman acted without our consent. Most of us were in the hospital wing the entire time, tending to our wounded. We would have stopped him if we knew.."**_

Danny cut him off. "_**Where is Clockwork?"**_

Clockwork pushed through the crowd of Observants, whacking a few with his time staff as he went. "_**I am here, Daniel. Trust me, Arthur is telling the truth. Frankly, I respect him for acting without the council. They wouldn't have wanted to pull such a big move, but I assure you, it was necessary. You need to be here right now, not on vacation."**_

Danny huffed, speaking in English now. "A little warning might have been nice."

"I would have warned you, if I hadn't been in a coma in the medical wing of the Observants Tower." Clockwork said with a sigh. The old ghost wavered in the air.

Danny paled. "Was it..?"

"No, Daniel. It was not him. He is still in the thermos, hidden in the wall of my lair. I turned the thermos intangible and put it through the wall before I was attacked by those pink soldiers."

"Are you ok now?"

"I'm fine;" Clockworks voice was strained, and Danny raised an eyebrow. Clockwork sighed. "We can talk about me later, but right now we must keep moving. Where are the others?"

"The skull rock. I was planning on having Scree and his boys take you all down there, until I saw them." Danny motioned towards the humans, who all looked bewildered.

"I see. Shall we be going?" Clockwork turned around to the Observants. Arthur looked pleased with himself, and the others looked passive.

"Sounds good." Danny, after mumbling a few words to Skulker, motioned for the group of ghosts behind him to move ahead, which they did without question.

Then Danny grabbed Clockwork by the wrist and pulled the old ghost onto his back.

Clockwork was annoyed by this. "I can float perfectly well on my own, you know."

"You told me you just got out of a ghost coma and you sound exhausted. I'm doing you a favor. Just roll with it, Clockwork."

Clockwork smirked, but let his mentee carry him.

The humans, meanwhile, were so shocked that they could barely move. Fenton had just ordered around a huge group of ghosts and they hadn't even questioned him. Maybe it had something to do with the red eyes earlier? What about that ectoblast that he'd fired from his hand during the fight with Johnny? Was that like, a secret ecto gun in his hand or was a ghost overshadowing him? What was that language he'd spoken to the Ghosts earlier?

Lancer had read an ungodly amount of mystery novels in his time, and almost every time he'd known what was going on before the main characters in the book had. Danny Fenton, though, was such a mystery that Lancer didn't even have a _guess _as to what was going on. He had a feeling that the answer was right in front of all of their faces, yet it was so unlikely that no one was even crazy enough to consider it. The thought frustrated Lancer to an unimaginable extent.

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

Danny was leading the group back to the skull rock. He'd sent Skulker and the others took a shortcut to make sure nothing back at the skull attracted any suspicion from the humans about the secret identity of their prince.

Danny adjusted his hold on Clockwork so he could use one of his hands to motion forward the councilman that had acted alone. He still couldn't remember his name.

"What did Clockwork tell me your name was when I wasn't paying attention?" Danny asked, smirking, as the councilman approached him. Clockwork lightly hit Danny's head with his time staff, making Danny chuckle.

"Arthur."

"Cool. I was close- I thought it was like, Alex or Andy or something. Anyways, so, about what happened.." Danny said a bit awkwardly.

"I understand if you're angry with me, Prin-... Danny," Arthur looked back at the humans, who were looking at him with suspicion in their eyes. They didn't seem to hear his slip up.

"I was a bit mad at first, but after you explained your actions, I understand. I don't really blame you, now. In fact, I respect you for your decision to act on your own."

"Thank you, your highness." Arthur said, so pleased that he had Danny's approval that he forgot the Ghost Prince had a secret to keep.

"WHAT?" A human voice shrieked from behind them.


	8. Ferone

_**VERY IMPORTANT- PLEASE READ**_

**I can't decide which of my two story ideas to follow. So, I've decided to get you guys to choose!**

**Story Idea 1- Person from our universe thrown into the DP universe. Person is not a halfa, but that doesn't mean she isn't going to be awesome! Story will be funny and interesting. I already have the first chapter done for this idea so if you guys want this one it'll be up faster than Idea 2. If you guys like my first fic (this one) then I'm pretty sure you'll like that one. :)**

**Story Idea 2- This one is a challenge from ****t-rex989****. Lancer's English class is sent back to Ancient Rome and are having some ...difficulties… with the locals. This one will be a more dramatic/intense fic so if thats what you're into then vote idea two!**

**You can either send your vote in a PM or a review- either way works for me.**

**I love the reviews I got for my last chapter too, so thanks! Keep letting me know what you all think of this story!**

**Chapter 8**

**Third Person P.O.V.**

"_Thank you, your highness." Arthur said, so pleased that he had Danny's approval that he forgot the Ghost Prince had a secret to keep. _

"_WHAT?" A human voice shrieked from behind them._

Danny froze, going deathly pale. The frost was back, covering his fingers and hair. he quickly shook out his hair before anyone noticed. Every other ghost there froze as well, the Observants, the ghosts who worked for the Observants, all of them. They all knew the importance of their Prince's secret identity. Were it to get out, he would be hunted in his home world. He would be shunned. Phantom didn't deserve that for all the good he did.

Danny turned slowly, and saw _Dash._ The jock was standing right behind him.

"Shit." Was all Danny could muster through his shock.

"You're a _king?!"_ The jock asked incredulously.

"No. He's a Prince." Clockwork said with a snarkily.

Danny hissed at his guardian over his shoulder, "_Not. Helping."_

"Dash..? Did you just say that Fenon is a _king?_" Paulina asked, her face paling tremendously.

"He's not a king. He's a Prince." Dash said matter-of-factly.

"_WHAT?!_" was the response from the entire class.

"Prince of what? This spooky island?" Kwan asked.

"Guys- Clockwork was just messing with you. I'm not the prince of anything."

"Oh, Daniel, stop being modest. They would never bug you again if they knew you were...-" Clockwork was cut off. The old ghost suddenly went entirely still. After mere seconds he went limp and passed out, falling off Danny's back.

Danny was by his mentors side in less than a second.

Danny's brow furrowed. He could feel the time ghost's core was still active, telling him that Clockwork wasn't gone. He was simply unconscious.

"What the hell?" Danny muttered, and looked up to see Arthur collapsing to the ground as well. Danny watched in mute horror while the other ghosts around him met the same fate. He looked over at the class, who were thankfully still conscious. He was about to release a sigh of relief that he wasn't the only one awake when he noticed their expressions. They were looking over Danny's shoulder, with a look that was both confused and terrified at the same time.

"Hello, _your majesty._" A voice sneered from behind him. Danny only had half of a second to consider how familiar the voice was.

Danny was about to turn around to face the owner of the voice when suddenly he felt something hard hit the back of his head.

After only a moment of pain, the halfa blacked out.

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

**Tucker's P.O.V.**

When Skulker rushed into the Skull Rock, he began barking out orders immediately.

"Burn the Princes old clothes, the ectoplasm would be suspicious. Get rid of the medical supplies, get rid of that bloody couch, get rid of anything that might attract suspicion from his highnesses humans."

"Skulker. We're right here." Valerie said, confused.

"No. His _other _ones. The Observants are here, they explained everything, they brought the humans, the High Prince is bringing them here, soon, so everyone had better be prepared for their arrival! Get moving!" Skulker yelled at a mile a minute.

Tucker, Sam and Valerie ran around, clearing away anything that might cause suspicion from the class. They helped ghosts clear blood/ectoplasm stains from the floor and carpet area and from off the couch. They also threw out all the old bandages that Danny had used.

When everything was clean of evidence, the three friends sighed in relief. The class was probably suspicious enough as it was. If they found anything pointing towards Danny's secret, the results could have been catastrophic.

They plopped down on a couch and waited for the arrival of their friend and class.

They waited for a long time.

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

When Danny came to, he had one of the worst headaches of his life. The Prince groaned, opening his eyes, and tried to sit up. He immediately realised three things. One, he was in a dark room, and judging the bumps and whirs Danny felt outside the room, he was in a vehicle of some sort. Two, his class was nowhere to be seen. Three, this was the second time _that day_ that he'd been caught off guard, and captured because of it.

He tried to remember what had happened. He'd been on Skulker's Island, leading everyone back to the hunter's lair.

Clockwork passed out. All the other ghosts did too. The pain blossoming at the back of his skull.

'Hello, _your majesty._' He remembered a voice had said.

He recognized that voice.

He strained to remember who it was, but he couldn't place it.

Danny stood up and felt around the walls of the room, smirking at the failed attempt at ghost-proofing it.

Danny knew about this sort of thing from experience. When Danny was first made a ghost, his core was weak. So, when Vlad trapped him in a room that had been ghost proofed, it felt like a cork on a bottle of his ghost powers. As his core grew stronger, he was able to get past the cork more and more often. Two years later, his core was one of the strongest in the Ghost Zone. Now, the cork was almost nonexistent, meaning that most ghost proof things didn't even hinder him anymore. That was why he'd been able to break Johnny's ropes earlier. The only exception to the ghost proofing rule was 'Ectoranium'; Vald had mentioned the material in one of his rants. Apparently that particular substance was naturally ghost resistant; not man made like most ghost proof objects. It wasn't a matter of cores with naturally ghost proof material, it was simply a matter of ectoplasmic entity vs. not ectoplasmic entity.

Danny shook himself, knowing that his friends would be reminding him to stay focused if they were there.

He reached out with his core, just like he had when he was seeing if Clockwork was ok.

He still felt his own cold, ghostly aura; which meant that the wall wasn't strong enough. His attackers had underestimated him.

Danny phased out of the room and turned invisible.

After doing a bit of looking around, Danny figured that the vessel he was in was pretty much an super-sized Specter Speeder. It was used for travel through the Ghost Zone.

This brightened Danny's mood. As long as he was still in the Infinite Realms he could easily find Skulkers again. Before he left, though, he was going to find the person (or people) responsible for this inconvenience. Danny phased through another wall, and found himself in what appeared to be the control room of the speeder. There were four people in there. Two seats in the front, two in the back. They were all dressed in bright, hot pink, battle armor.

Danny's jaw dropped when he recognized one of them through the face visor he wore. Other than the pink irises, the man was he and Tucker's math teacher, Mr. Ferone. Danny was confused. He and Tuck both agreed that Mr. Ferone was their best teacher because, for one, he was younger (maybe his late twenties) so he wasn't as harsh and weird. Secondly, he more fun in class. He made things as interesting as he could and cared about his students more than the other teachers did. He was a really nice guy. There was no way he'd attacked Danny out of his own free will.

With a renewed sense of urgency, Danny flew into Mr. Ferone's body without overshadowing him, simply listening to his thoughts.

What he found in his math teacher's head, he was not expecting. There was a voice, barking out commands to, whom Danny assumed, were other peoples minds as well as Mr. Ferone's.

"C-13, anything to report from the realm of the Far Frozen?" The voice sounded through Mr. Ferone's mind.

"No locals have been found. There is evidence of civilization, but it seems they have evacuated." An unrecognizable voice answered.

"Keep looking."

The voice went on to yell at more people using numbers instead of names. He must be the leader; the one who had put this spell on all these humans.

He thought back to Clockwork's lessons about the mind-control of humans. That would explain how they were all communicating with their minds. It would also explain the bright pink eyes- victims of mind control normally inherited the eye color of the leader.

Danny brightened when he remembered how to break the spell.

_Thank youuuu, Clockwork._ Danny thought with a grin.

Danny concentrated on making his voice only heard to Mr. Ferone, blocking out the other mind-control victims and the leader.

"James Ferone." He said in his teacher's mind.

Danny quickly fully overshadowed his math-teacher so the extremely confused man wouldn't give away the fact that he was free of the leader's power. Danny kept his posture straight and his teachers' face passive.

Mr. Ferone's voice echoed in Danny's mind. "What the heck..?"

"Heyyy, Mr. Ferone. What's up?" Danny replied awkwardly.

"Fenton?"

"Yea, it's a long story, and we really don't have much time. Now, do you remember what happened?"

The young math teacher mentally winced.

"I still have all of the memories. That ghost took over. I was still there, but it was different. I was sort of watching his drone from the back of my mind, unable to do anything… Sorry about knocking you out with that rock, by the way."

Danny burst out laughing, in his mind of course. "You got me with a _rock?_ Why am I not surprised? I _told _them the rocks here hate me! " He paused, sensing confusion from Mr. Ferone. "Another long story. First, lets get out of here. Do you know any of the other three people in here?"

"The woman sitting in front of us is my wife."

"Her full name?"

"Anna Ferone."

"Ok, now listen carefully. Stay absolutely still when I give you the controls back. Keep a straight face no matter what. Got it?"

Not waiting for an answer, Danny phased out of Mr. Ferone and into the woman, Anna, in front of him. He once again heard the leader asking for status reports and telling everyone what to do.

He cut them out of Anna's head and spoke clearly. "Anna Ferone."

He overshadowed her a half a second later.

He heard her groan inside her mind.

"Ms. Ferone?" Danny asked calmly.

"...who are you and why are you in my head?"

"I'm Danny. I'll explain more later." He repeated the instructions to her that he'd given Mr. Ferone before he left the math teachers body. He phased out of Anna and went over to one of the other drones. One of them was driving the speeder, so to avoid a collision with floating ghost debris he chose the other one first.

He phased into the man touched a nerve in his brain. The drone immediately went unconscious, falling to the floor. Danny phased out of the body and looked to make sure the two humans he'd saved were still in position. Mr. Ferones eyes flicked over to the body on the ground with concern, but he remained still.

The drone who had been driving looked back at his comrade, confused. Before he could report the abnormality to their leader Danny had him unconscious as well.

When the driver drone fell off the chair, Danny quickly phased out of him and took over the controls, becoming visible. He checked the bangs falling over his eyes quickly, making sure they were still black. He sighed with relief when he saw they were. He was getting better and better at using his powers as a human.

"Ok, guys. You can stop the zombie act, now. We're clear." He told the full humans. They broke out of the uncomfortable position and jumped into each others' arms.

Danny smiled at the pair before moving his attention to the Ghost Zone outside the front window. He saw a few familiar paths and a few familiar lairs. He saw Walkers Prison in the distance, and from there calculated a route back to Skulkers. Suddenly, Danny remembered the Fenton Phones that had been in his ears before, only to find they were gone. When Anna saw his confusion, she sheepishly apologized because the drone that had been running her body had destroyed Danny's portable radios.

The two humans broke apart and sat down in the seats beside and across from Danny. There was a pause before anything else was said.

Mr. Ferone was the first to break the silence. "Danny, not to sound ungrateful, but I think you need to explain some things."

"As long as you guys are capable of keeping a few secrets."

Mr. Ferone waited a beat before asking, "Are you really the ghost prince? That's all I really remember knowing."

Danny sighed, knowing this question had been coming. He sighed dejectedly.

"Yea. I am."

There was silence for a few minutes after that as the two adults took this news in.

"That doesn't make sense." Mr. Ferone said, shaking his head in disbelief. "How can humans be royalty in the ghost's world?"

"They can't." Danny replied honestly.

The silence resumed. Danny dodged ghost rocks, expertly maneuvering the speeder. The Ferone's stared at him. It was almost as if they were having a contest to see who could figure out what was going on first. This went on for a solid ten minutes.

Ms. Ferone suddenly perked up, as if making a massive discovery. She smiled so widely that Danny was concerned her face might beak. Suddenly, without warning, she hopped up out of her seat and gave Danny a massive bear hug. Danny quickly stopped the vehicle to avoid running into any floating objects.

Mr. Ferone laughed. "Ok, Anna. You win. What's his secret?"

When Anna she broke away from Danny, she was beaming. She looked Danny right in the eye and said, "Danny Phantom."

Mr. Ferone's jaw dropped. He looked over Danny one more time, probably comparing the two.

"Wow. Amity Park is _blind_." He said a moment later.

Danny laughed. "You can't see what isn't there. No one thought half-ghosts could even exist, so they wouldn't have guessed Danny Phantom was one."

Mr. Ferone laughed. "I suppose so." He paused for a moment. "I suppose that also explains how you were able to overshadow us. You're a ghost."

"Yea. It was an accident in my parent's lab." Danny said. "It was right at the beginning of freshman year." Mr. Ferone fell silent. Two years was a long time.

Danny saw Ms. Ferone was still smiling at him with a look of awe on her face. He looked over at her and chuckled softly. "What's the smile for?"

Anna looked at him with the deepest of admiration as she answered. "I was out at the park with our daughter. She was ten years old at the time. There was a ghost attack, a big tree got blasted. It fell, Rosie was right underneath it. She might have been seriously injured; maybe even killed if Danny Phantom hadn't swooped down from the sky and pushed her out of the way. I ran to her, completely forgetting about the nine-foot-tall mechanical robot ghost attacking the park. He shot at us, and we both would have died for sure. For the second time that day we were saved. Phantom didn't even have time to put up a shield. So, to save our lives, he used himself as a shield. A few moments later, the mechanical ghost was in the thermos, and Phantom was bleeding out on the grass. I ran over to him, but before I reached where he was he was gone. We never even had a chance to thank him." Anna was tearing up. Danny would never admit it, but he was too.

"I remember that day. Skulker had just upgraded one of his weapons so it would hurt my human half too. To prove it, he fired at a few humans. I was so mad at Skulker after that, I didn't let him out of the thermos for a week. I was ok, though, I just had a friend bandage up the wound."

"This is incredible. It's always been you, saving so many people, dealing with stupid jerks like Baxter _and_ keeping it all a secret?" Mr. Ferone asked.

"Yea it's always been me. Oh, and by the way, for any incidents that made me seem like a bad ghost- I was framed." Danny said.

Mr. Ferone chuckled. "We figured. We're not entirely clueless. After you saved my wife and daughter we did some research, and found a few interesting facts. The mayor had red eyes during his supposed 'kidnapping' and the stolen goods were found in the possession of a human. Overshadowing and some kind of ghost controlling technology? We just decided to give you the benefit of the doubt about that christmas thing."

Danny laughed. "Another long story."

"Promise you'll tell me all these long stories you keep telling me about sometime?" Mr. Ferone asked, chuckling.

"I Promise. First though, let's get back to the others, ok?"

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

**Tucker's P.O.V.**

Tucker, Sam and Valerie took over operations at Skulker's Island after Skulker managed to lose the Ghost Prince. They sent out search parties all over the island in attempt to find them.

Sam and Valerie led the parties out with directions from Tucker, who was standing over a map back at Skulker's lair. He was barking orders into the Fenton Phones for his two friends. They had been following this system for about forty five minutes when suddenly, the three teen's were pleasantly surprised. There was a groan over a pair of Fenton Phones, and it wasn't from them.

"Hello!? Who's there?" Tucker said with a commanding tone into the earpieces. "If you can hear me and you are not Valerie or Sam, you had _better_ answer me!"

"Mr. Foley?" Lancer's groggy voice broke through the speakers.

Val, Sam and Tuck all breathed a sigh of relief. If the Fenton phones were somehow back in range, finding the others would much easier.

"Mr. Lancer we need you to help us find you guys. Do you know where you are? Who else is there with you?"

"We were ambushed. They knocked out the ghosts and Mr. Fenton, took Fenton, and left the rest of us there. When they were gone, we each grabbed as many unconscious ghosts as we could carry and ran away. They are surprisingly light so we're were able to get them all. We found a cave and crashed in here."

Sam spoke up. "They took Danny?" Her voice sounded sad.

"Yes, I'm sorry Ms. Manson."

Sam was quiet for a few moments. When she spoke again, her voice was hard and cold. "Mr. Lancer, make a fire close to the entrance of the cave. We're going to try to spot the smoke."

Valerie spoke, sounding angry. "I don't get it! How could anyone have snuck up on Danny? Wouldn't his ghost sense have gone off!?" Valerie said.

"Ghost sense?" Mr. Lancer asked.

"That, Mr. Lancer, is a story for another time." She replied, her voice as cold as Sam's.

"Well, if Mr. Fenton was relying on a ghost sensor to not be caught by surprise than I know exactly why we were. The man that knocked out Mr. Fenton was James Ferone, a teacher back at Casper. He came up behind Daniel, said 'Hello, your majesty.' and took him out with a rock." Tucker couldn't help but chuckle. His friend had been right. The rocks here were out to get him.

"That wasn't even the strangest part." Mr. Lancer continued. "He was wearing hot pink armor and his eyes matched it! I've never seen eyes like that in my life, and certainly never get on Mr. Ferone."

All three teens paled at Lancers description. Danny had told them about the pink soldiers. Why one of them looked like Mr. Ferone was a mystery to them.

Tucker sighed, adding this issue to his list of problems. The list was already almost a mile long.

"Mr. Lancer, wake the others with you and wait for further instruction." He said. He looked back to the map and stuck pins over any cave he found on the map of Skulkers Island, he planned to check every single one. If the group was on the island, he intended to find them. He assumed they were, if the Fenton phones were in range.

Mr. Lancers voice broke through the speakers once again, "The students are all awake, but the ghosts aren't waking up. We don't know what's wrong with them." The old teacher paused in contemplation. "Mr. Foley why would they take Daniel and not us? Clockwork was saying that Mr. Fenton was a prince, but Daniel assured us that it wasn't true. Then Mr. Ferone called him 'your majesty'. I don't know who to believe!"

"Ok, how about this. When we find you all, we will answer a few questions, but right now I think-" Sam spoke up, ever the negotiator. She probably got the trait from her parents.

Dash's voice cut her off. He hadn't lost his Fenton Phones. "A few?! Do you even know how freaking crazy this all is for us? We need like, a bajillion answers! 'A few' isn't going to cut it, Manson!"

Tucker could hear sounds of agreement from the class.

Sams irritated sigh cut through the classes complaining. "Fine. We'll make a deal about that when we find you guys, because right now it is not our main concern. Now, all of you work together to build a few fires around the outside of the cave. Stay in groups. Each group have a pair of Fenton phones. We're going to send out search teams to all the caves. Do not trust any ghost you see unless they say.." She trailed off, probably trying to think of a sufficient code.

Tucker grinned.

"Long live the Phantom." He said.

Sam and Valerie laughed. It was perfect.

Sam finished giving her instructions, chuckling. "So unless the ghost you see says the words 'long live the Phantom', do not trust them and call for help over the Fenton Phones. We can use the ghost to find you guys."

After agreement from the class, the three teens resumed their search, making sure to inform all the ghosts about the newly instated code. They began their search with the caves.

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

**Danny's P.O.V.**

As Danny and the Ferone couple approached Skulkers, Danny could see three columns of smoke rising up through the trees, so they landed near there. Perhaps the group was hiding out in the forest after the sighting of the Pink Soldiers. After they landed, they locked the two (still unconscious drones in the room they'd trapped Danny in; giving Danny an immense sense of satisfaction.

Danny transformed into his ghostly alter-ego, surprising the humans. He lifted them up above the trees and flew towards the smoke. He landed in a clearing and returned to his human form. They pushed through some bushes and were suddenly faced with the entrance of a cave. Around the area were three strong fires and a few smaller ones. He motioned for Mr. and Ms. Ferone to stay hidden in the trees.

"Hello?" Danny called into the cave.

"Fenton?!" A few voices called out from the cave. It was so dark that Danny couldn't see them.

"Yea, its me. Come on out."

"Dude! How did you get here? Didn't Ferone like, kidnap you?" Some guy asked.

"Well- its sorta hard to explain-" Danny started, before being cut off again.

"Fenton? why did that guy call you 'your highness'?" Another student called out. Before Danny could think of a lie to cover for himself, he was cut off once again.

"How do we know its you? You could be some evil robot or something pretending to be Fenton. Give us some proof." Dash called out.

Danny sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "Ok, Dash, how's this for proof? I'm Daniel Fenton. I'm in grade ten at Casper high. We were on a ski trip when our stupid bus ran out of gas, somehow. We were attacked by Johnny 13. I was dumb enough to let my guard down while he was still there. An Observant used him to get you guys, then he used you guys to get me. He wanted me because there is a ghost in the human realm taking over the minds of humans. He uses them to attack the residents of the Ghost Zone. So, I brought Phantom. He and I are here to save the Infinite Realms and right now you guys are wasting an _ungodly_ amount of my time. So come on; we have to get moving, _now._"

"What makes you think you can order us around, Fen-toad?" Kwan asked.

"I can order you around because right now, none of you have any idea where you are or what you're doing, whereas I have been here a number of times and I know my way around. So you can either sit in that cave and starve to death or you can follow me to Skull Rock to meet up with Sam, Tuck and Valerie. Make your choice."

Reluctantly, the humans walked out, each carrying at least two ghosts. Most of the football players carried four or five.

Mr. Lancer looked happy to see Danny, but still confused. "Mr. Fenton, I'm grateful to see that you're ok, but I have to ask; how on earth are you here?"

"I think we can answer that." A voice snarled from the treeline. It was Valerie.

Mr. and Ms. Ferone were pushed out of their hiding spots in the trees. The two landed on the ground in clearing, and following them out of the trees were two of Danny's best friends. Sam and Valerie stepped out of the bushes behind them. Sam had two human handguns, each pointed at one of the Ferone's on the ground. Valerie had her favourite ecto-pistol pointed at Danny's head.

Valerie was aiming from quite far away, but Danny didn't underestimate her.

If Valerie pulled that trigger, _she would not miss._


	9. Answers

_**A message to my lil bro Lukas, you should actually read the story instead of just reading my author notes. XD 333**_

_**Ok, guys.**_ **Idea 2 won, but I'm going to wait until I'm done writing this story to get it started because I really don't have time for two stories at once. Right now I don't actually have a full, thought out plan for this story- I'm sorta just making it as I go along so it takes longer to write. It seems to be working though so whatever. XD**

**Sneak peak of author just wingin' it right before last chapter:**

Here I am, sitting at my desk with my laptop open.

'So.' I think to myself. 'Should this be the chapter that Danny asks Sam out?

Then the devilish voice at the back of my mind says 'Naw, make the readers wait so they suffer longer. Oh, and end the chapter with a cliffhanger!'

Me: 'Ok. Whatever. So, should anyone find out about Danny's secret in this chapter?'

Devil: 'Maybe. If anyone does though, make it a _cliffhanger_! They will all suffer my cliffhanging WRATH!'

Me: 'Since when are my inner demons so evil?.'

Devil: '_If she pulled that trigger, __she would not miss__._'

Me: 'Damn, thats good.'

**So, thanks for the support guys! Keep reviewing!**

**Chapter 9**

**Third Person POV**

_Mr. and Ms. Ferone were pushed out of their hiding spots in the trees. The two landed on the ground in clearing, and following them out of the trees were two of Danny's best friends. Sam had two human handguns, each pointed at one of the Ferone's on the ground. Valerie had her favourite ecto-pistol pointed at Danny's head._

_Valerie was aiming from quite far away, but Danny didn't underestimate her. _

_If she pulled that trigger, she would not miss._

"Valerie.." Danny said slowly, raising his hands in surrender. "Why are you aiming that ecto-pistol at me?"

Valerie ignored him and spoke to the class. "That's not Danny. Thats a drone. The Leader has him under his mind control."

"WHAT?!" Danny and the Ferone's asked incredulously.

Valeries gun twitched slightly, and Danny went absolutely still. He kept speaking slowly and calmly. "Valerie if there are any ghosts around, they can clear both me _and_ the Ferones. If I were being controlled, a ghost listening in my mind would be able to hear the Leader's voice in there ordering me and all the other drones around. _Phantom_ figured that out from experience. He woke up Mr. and Ms. Ferone before we escaped. We have two drones captive in the ship they took Phantom and I in."

Valerie and Sam lowered their guns slightly, but didn't put them away.

"What are your names?" Sam asked, talking to all three of the newcomers. Her voice broke slightly when she looked over at Danny.

"Anna Ferone"

"James Ferone"

Danny paused, wondering if he should say his _whole_ name. He smiled widely at Sam and chuckled to himself. He bent over and picked up a rather large leaf. He then carved his full name onto it with a pebble. He held it up in front of his chest as if he were taking a mug shot.

Sam stepped forward, holstering her two handguns. She was almost within Danny's arm length when she stopped. She looked closely at Danny's eyes. She looked from a few different angles to make sure that the blue she saw weren't from colored contacts. When she was sure of that, she picked the leaf out of his hands.

The leaf itself was about the size of both her palms. Written on it was Danny's full title.

_Daniel James Fenton/Phantom, High Prince of all the Ghost Zone and it's certified inhabitants. _

_Fear me._

Sam burst out laughing at the reference to the 'Ghost Gabber'.

After her laughter subsided a bit launched herself into Danny's arms with relief, almost knocking him over. She was mumbling about how she was worried sick the whole time he was gone. He held her close and said nothing. The two just enjoyed the moment for a few seconds before hearing Valerie laughing. She had picked up the leaf that Sam had dropped and had read it.

When she was done she crushed the leaf between her fingers so the wandering eyes of the other humans wouldn't reach it.

Valerie turned to Danny, "Sorry we doubted you, but we had to be sure, you know? We just spoke with the Ghost Writer a little while ago. He knew we were dealing with mind control from our description of Mr. Ferone, but he didn't give us much else. He said they won't know their own names and their eye color would be different. When we saw them in the bushes and you out there, totally unharmed.."

Danny laughed. "You know, I'm almost offended. You guys have less faith in me then I thought." He paused, motioning his friends to move out of earshot with him. They moved over to the Ferones so that they could be included in the conversation. The other humans were all huddled around, whispering hurriedly probably trying to figure out what had just happened.

Danny continued. "I have some information about this kind of thing from my lessons with Clockwork. He told me how to free a mind-control victim- you have to tell a drone their real names. As long as they hear it they will automatically be freed. It's pretty cool."

Danny told them the rest of the story as well, about how the Ferones found out about his secret, how he took out the drones, and how the leader probably knew all about him. The Ferones were mostly silent. They couldn't help but think about how amazing it was that this amazing secret had been kept for so long.

Danny had just finished catching up his friends when the class finally confronted them. Mr. Lancer stood at the front of the pack, glowering at the three teens.

"This has gone on for long enough. You will answer all of our questions before we do anything else, and that's final." Their English teacher looked more fed up than the trio had ever seen him before, and that was saying something.

Sam and Valerie were slightly angry that Mr. Lancer thought he could order them around, but Danny motioned for them to let him handle it. He called on his ghost core, and moments later Danny Phantom flew out of the trees at top speed, skidding to a halt beside Danny, Sam and Valerie. Every humans' jaw hit the ground except Sam's.

Sam just grinned and leaned over to Valerie who was looking shocked, whispering "_Duplication"_

Valerie's expression changed from confused to impressed, and whispered back, "He's getting better.

Sam nodded her agreement. Danny had never been able to duplicate in human form before now.

Phantom stood up straight, smirking. He hardly acknowledged the presence of everyone other than Sam, Valerie and Danny. "You guys are so slow. We expected you all back at Skulker's, like, half an hour ago."

Valerie smirked right back. "Yea, well, most of us can't fly there at two hundred miles per, Phantom. You're just going to have to be patient."

"Normally, I would accept that excuse. I don't, though, because it seems you guys haven't moved an inch since I was last here. Can you guys not move _any _faster?" Phantom said, raising an eyebrow.

Sam snorted. "Says the guy who has all the time in the universe. In case you forgot, you're a ghost."

"Touché." The white haired duplicate quipped between chuckles. "Ok, but seriously. We have to go guys. I have places to be, lives to save, afterlives to save, etc."

All of the students were ready to follow their hero, but Lancer wasn't fooled.

"Convenient, isn't it? The town hero shows up just as we were about to finally get some answers." Lancer said with an eyebrow raised. The class remembered the answers that they hadn't received yet and snapped back to attention

Danny sighed, looking at his duplicate. Phantom looked back at him, expression turned two had a silent conversation in their shared mind.

"_Damn, they're relentless._" The duplicate sighed.

"_I know right? This is going to be harder than we thought." _ Danny said telepathically.

"_If they aren't going to give in we'll just have to compromise._"

"_You talk to them. They respect white hair more than black._"

Phantom sighed, giving Danny an annoyed look. Then he spoke to the class "Fine. What do you want to know?"

He was answered by a cacophony of questions and yells from the teens.

"Do you play football?"

"Do ghosts eat? Do you like the Nasty Burger?"

"Why do you protect the town?"

"What happened with the mayor?"

"Marry me?!"

Danny spoke up for his duplicate, who was hiding behind Sam.

"GUYS." Danny upped the volume of his voice with a bit of a ghostly wail, but not one big enough that the humans noticed. They only noticed how loud he was.

They were silenced.

"That's better." Danny said. "Now, me, Sam, Val and Phantom will each answer _one_ question. If you complain, you aren't allowed to ask any. So think about what you want to know while we walk to Skull Rock, we will answer as soon as you all reach a decision, Mr. Lancer will be the one to ask the questions. Now come on." he started walking in the direction of Skull Rock, and to his relief, they all followed him.

With that, the group was on their way. They left the unconscious ghosts in the cave, they would only get in the way and they would be completely defenceless. The main four (well, three unless you count the duplicate) and the Ferones walked ahead and out of hearing range from the class, chatting with Tucker over the Fenton Phones on the way. They made sure that they were on a different channel than the class, of course. They told Tuck the story while the class lagged behind, arguing about what to ask.

Finally, the class approached them.

Danny and Phantom sighed simultaneously, reminding them both to remain focussed so that they didn't merge by mistake.

"Sorry, Tuck. The class has finally reached a verdict. We're going to have to go." He said.

"No problem, dude. Call back later." Tuckers voice sounded grainy over the Fenton Phones.

"Will do." Danny shut off his Fenton Phone.

"Ok, Mr. Fenton. We've decided what we want to know. Who will answer their question first?"

"I'll go." Sam said when none of her other friends seemed too keen to go first.

"Ok, Ms. Manson. What did you tell Valerie when Phantom first arrived? You two were whispering."

Sam paled slightly, fumbling for a lie.

"The truth, if you don't mind." Mr. Lancer said sternly.

The goth in question sighed, running her fingers through her hair.

"Valerie was surprised when Phantom showed up because he was supposed to be on the other side of the island. So I told her it was the power Phantom has just recently mastered." She looked over at the duplicate. "Duplication."

Mr. Lancer was unconvinced. "Why be secretive about that?"

"How many members of the 'PhanClub' are here today? Now that they know, everyone will know. It could have been used as a surprise attack before now." Sam said, scowling.

Lancer bought the mostly-truth and moved on. "Valerie?" He asked.

"Sure." She said, looking slightly nervous.

"Do you know the Red Huntress? Personally?"

"Yes I do. She's a friend. I'm the one who convinced her to stop hunting Phantom." Valerie's lie was smooth, and the other teens were impressed. Lancer didn't stop there, though.

"We heard some of your conversation with Johnny 13- when you all first arrived in the Ghost Zone. We were in range for part of you conversation and we heard through the radios. You called the biker ghost '_spook_' and it reminded us of the Huntress. At first we thought she was here with you all but we haven't seen her."

"No, she couldn't make it. She had to stay behind to protect Amity while Phantom was gone. She might be under the mind spell now." Sam said, covering for her friend. She hid her shock at what Lancer had said. How much more of the conversation had they heard?

"What about that creepy growl we heard?" one girl asked. Some students around her agreed.

"I dunno. It must have been from outside the bus or something." Valerie said. She thought she was telling the truth- she didn't really remember all the details of Danny's outburst.

"No, it was through the Fenton Phones. It was definitely on your guys' end." Another kid backed up the girl.

"I remember that. It was Phantom, he was pretty pissed off that I stole his humans." Everyone jumped away from the trees in surprise. Johnny and Skulker stepped out.

Both Danny and Phantom raised the same eyebrow at the same time, asking "What are you guys doing here?". They sounded like one person in different bodies, (which they were, but most of the humans there didn't know that). There were questioning glances from the class and Lancer.

Johnny smirked at Danny's slip up. "We came to find you guys. You were taking too long."

"Wow. Ghosts are really impatient." Dash said. The two Danny's snorted at how hypocritical that statement was, and it was then that they started to worry. If they kept acting at the same time like this, it was going to be noticed.

"Well, we aren't done asking questions, so you're going to have to wait a bit longer." Lancer said to Johnny and Skulker. Then he turned to the duplicate. "Phantom, you're up. Why did you follow us into the Ghost Zone?"

"What kind of teenage superhero would I be if I didn't?" He said smirking. Danny had to fight the urge to say the words along with his copy. He had to stop using the duplicate soon. He felt himself slowly being drawn back into one.

Lancer gave Phantom the stink-eye, sending a clear message that that wasn't going to cut it.

The duplicate sighed with frustration and shot a quick side glance to Danny. Danny thought for a moment before speaking through the duplicate.

"Ok, fine. I feel guilty about you all being brought into the middle of this crap. You should all be skiing in the mountains right now, not in the Infinite Realms fighting off starvation and mind-control ghosts. I blame myself, so when Fenton told me what happened over the phone, I had to come. If I'd only worked a bit harder to gain the trust of the Observants this whole thing could have been avoided. It's my fault, so I'm not going to sit on the sidelines and watch you all die out here."

Danny didn't have time to observe their reactions to this. He and his copy both suddenly became extremely light headed and wobbled on their feet. Thankfully, Mr. Ferone had been watching both Danny's intently and caught them by the elbows. Danny thought for a moment that he might pass out, but the dizzy spell passed. Danny knew what was going on- he had experienced this feeling during training. He and the duplicate were being pushed to their limit. He knew that if either of them spoke, they would speak completely in sync, probably blowing Danny's secret. Their movements would also match. Danny knew that he would have to merge with his duplicate very soon and that if he didn't on his own they would be forced together.

That would be hard to explain to the class.

Then again, so would both Danny's having dizzy spells at the same time with only a math teacher keeping them on their feet.

The class was just about to ask what was going on when Danny was both saved, and screwed, by a ghostly scream.


	10. The Leader

**Nothing to say today, so on to the story!**

**I do not own Danny Phantom.**

**Chapter 10**

**(Third Person P.O.V.)**

Both Danny's flew into a battle stance facing the direction of the scream. They saw Skull Rock not far away, and in the eye sockets of the skull there were flashes of pink light.

"Dammit!" The two cursed in total sync. They both started running towards Skull Rock and disappeared into the bushes. There was a flash of white light a moment later, signaling Danny's merge with his duplicate and his transformation into Phantom.

"Valerie, protect the others until you've found a safe place to put them. Hurry over as soon as they're hidden. I'm going after Danny!" Sam said, then started running in the direction Danny had gone.

Skulker quickly turned to Valerie. "There is a log cabin not far out from here in that direction." He pointed out east into the trees. "Just walk in that direction and you'll find it soon."

He and Johnny took off towards Sam. Skulker grabbed onto her as he flew by and carried her with him. Sam didn't seem to complain and accepted the faster form of transportation. The three flew off at top speed towards Skull Rock.

Valerie sighed, looking at her classmates and teacher with an exasperated look.

A few of the popular kids looked annoyed at what Sam said.

Dash, like always, quickly voiced his complaints. "We don't need a babysitter. Plus, what could Gray possibly do to protect us? She's just a poor loser who probably can't even.."

He was cut off as a ghost tiger flew out of the treeline and onto the path they'd been walking along. Most of the humans screamed.

Valerie, on the other hand, simply rolled her eyes at the nuisance. _Great, just what I need right now. One of Skulkers pets._

Thinking fast as the tiger circled the group, ready to pounce, Valerie came up with three courses of action. One, she could try to run. Unfortunately, there was no way any of them were fast enough to outrun that thing. Two, she could pull out an ecto gun without her armor, probably causing the beast to charge before she even had a chance to pull the trigger. Without the hard, ghost proof shell that her armor provided, the ghost tiger would have no trouble taking her out with its claws or fangs. Three, she could reveal herself in front of a bunch of her peers. She decided that she only really had one option.

"Well, it probably wouldn't have stayed a secret over this ski trip from hell anyways." She mumbled to herself dejectedly.

Valerie let her red and black armor appear before leaping at the tiger. She landed just a few feet in front of it and slashed at the creature with a blade infused with ectoplasm so the ghost couldn't phase through it. The large feline hissed and clawed at Valerie, but her suit protected her. She chucked a few small, marble-like devices as a retaliation. The devices blew apart, not harming the tiger but effectively scaring it off. The beast took to the trees. She turned back to the class, whose jaws were hanging open in total awe at the scene before them.

Valerie smirked. "What were you saying, Dash? You don't need help from a poor loser like me?"

A few of the students' eyes widened in fear, and multiple people apologized for Dash's stupidity.

Valerie laughed at the students' reactions. "Relax, guys, I was messing with you. Now come on, we have to go find Skulkers cabin. I'll answer your questions later."

Thankfully, the class was smart enough to listen to her.

They took off into the woods, everyone sticking close to Valerie. They trekked through the bushes until reaching a small clearing, where, to Valerie's relief, a small log cabin rested, hidden under the trees. She would have completely missed it if she'd been flying.

She was about to pull open the door when she felt a hand on her shoulder, pulling her back. Acting entirely on instinct, she grabbed the person's arm, kicked out one of their ankles and had them completely immobile on the ground in under three seconds. Valerie was straddling the person facedown and was holding their arm above their back in an awkward position.

It finally registered in her mind that the boy she had trapped was none other than Kwan, and she let him go angrily.

"What the hell, Kwan?!" She asked.

The jock in question was sitting up with a groan and was rolling his shoulder in attempt to ease the pain. "I was about to ask you the same thing.." He grumbled.

"Kwan, what's wrong? Why'd you try to stop Valerie from going in?" Mr. Lancer asked, ever the peace keeper.

"Well, in all the movies when someone walks into the spooky cabin there are tons of booby traps. The first one is usually by the door."

Valerie rolled her eyes. "Oh for the love of.."

"Dude. Use your brain. Why would there be a booby trap? Skulker told us to come here!" Matt pointed out.

Kwan sighed. "Just humor me, ok?"

Valerie looked exasperated but she stepped aside.

Kwan grinned and walked up to the door. He examined the door for a moment before slowly turning the knob. The door opened slowly and for a moment the humans held their breaths.

Nothing happened.

Valerie smirked at the disheartened jock. "Thanks for that, Kwan. I'm so glad you're here to.." She was cut off because just as she walked through the doorway, the door itself was pushed open the rest of the way, hitting an unseen button. A large axe came down just inches in front of her face, barely missing her.

Many humans screamed at the surprise, but calmed down when they saw their peer was unharmed. Valerie turned around slowly and walked back outside with a shocked look on her face.

"I AM THE SMARTEST MAN ALIVE!" Kwan hooted victoriously, "Hate to say I told you so, but I totally did!"

There were a few moments of silence where no one moved.

Dash was the first to break out of his shocked stupor. "Kwan?"

"Yea?"

"If I ever call you stupid again, punch me in the face."

"Will do." Kwan laughed.

Valerie snapped out of her shock next, saying simply, "I think you guys will be safer outside with the ghost beasts then you will inside that cabin."

She paused, trying to think of a new plan. They could search for another cave, but there was no guarantee that they would find one anytime soon, and the others needed her at the rock.

Dash stole her attention away from her planning with a very up front question. "So how long have you been the Red Huntress?"

"Since the Red Huntress first appeared." She said simply, not really focused on what he was saying. She was still thinking about a plan.

"Why were you hunting Phantom?" Emily asked.

"I thought he was bad, and I guess I'm not huge on forgiveness. It was just recently that I realized the man feeding me bad information about him was evil himself. So, I found Phantom and we talked out our differences. He's actually one of my best friends now."

"How did you know that Phantom was good, though? Just because one evil guy told you he was evil, that doesn't necessarily make him good."

"It was a couple different things, actually. The first was that Phantom had actually tried to warn me a couple times about the evil guy; I just never believed him until I saw the proof myself. A few days later I saw Phantom just lying on a rooftop, looking at the stars. We started talking and I was amazed at how normal he seemed. It felt almost like I was talking to an old friend. The biggest part, though, of my accepting him, was when he told me why he protects Amity Park." Valerie thought back to that moment with a grin.

~FLASHBACK~ (Valeries P.O.V.)

"_Hey, Valerie?"_

"_Yea?"_

"_Can you keep a secret?"_

I was pretty shocked at this. What had I done to deserve Phantom's trust?

"Sure. No one knows who the Red Huntress is, right?"

"I know." Phantom said with a chuckle.

"Ok, well that's different and now we're entirely off topic." I chuckled with him.

"Yes, you're right. It's just… I've never told anyone this before. I'm kinda stressed out." Phantom nervously.

"You're planning on telling the girl that has been hunting you for almost _a year_ a secret that _no one else knows_?"

"Well it sounds stupid when you say it like that!" He said indignantly. "Besides, you'll be the fourth person who knows."

"But you said you haven't told anyone before..?"

"The first two people were there when it happened. The third figured it out. My two best friends and my sister."

I paused, just staring at him. "Are you ever planning on telling me or are you just going to beat around the bush like this all night?"

The ghost sighed. "I didn't plan on it being this hard to tell you."

"If it's that big you don't have to tell me."

"No, it's ok. I can do this... Valerie, I'm only hal-" He was cut off by an ecto-blast to the chest. The blast threw him off the opposite side of the roof.

"Phantom!" I called in shock in the direction Phantom had disappeared to. I turned around to see a none other than Jack and Maddie Fenton on the roof of the building across the street.

_Wow, how did we miss that?_ I couldn't help but think.

"Huntress!" Maddie Fenton yelled into a megaphone, "Don't listen to that evil pile of ectoplasm, he has you brainwashed! Come quietly, we only want to help get you away from his influence!"

I was surprised at how angry the words against Phantom made me. Somehow, in one night, I'd completely switched sides.

I turned on the speakers of her suit so her voice carried over to the ghost hunters.

"I think I'll pass, actually." My voice was laced with venom.

"You don't have a choice! You're under the influence of a ghost! Phantom is a menace!" Maddie tried to reason with me. Somehow, that made me even angrier.

"I'll tell you what, you can take your stupid, premature opinions of Danny Phantom and you can _shove them up your_-" I was cut off when suddenly I fell through the roof. I found myself inside the building on the top floor.

Phantom was on the floor laughing _absolutely hysterically_. There were tears streaming down his face he was laughing so hard. When he saw my confused look, he laughed even harder.

"What!?" I asked, frustrated.

"You should have seen the faces of the people in the street below!" He said between laughs.

This made me chuckle a bit, too. If I'd been a bystander to the argument between the Fentons and I, I'm sure my face would have been hilarious.

Suddenly I remembered what had interrupted our conversation in the first place. "Oh my gosh! The ecto-blast! Are you ok?"

"It's ironic, actually, that they happened to use that particular gun tonight. They pretty much just made sure that you'd find out my secret." Phantoms laughter had calmed to a chuckle now.

"What do you mean?"

Phantom, still on the ground, held out his feet in front of me. That was the first time that is noticed the black sneakers instead of his normal white boots.

"That's your secret? Different shoes?" I asked sarcastically.

Then, suddenly, a white ring of light appeared around his legs, changing the bottoms of his jumpsuit into a pair of blue jeans.

Phantom laughed. "Ok, I guess I should probably tell you the secret now before the gun's effects do for me, huh?"

"What exactly does the gun do?" I asked nervously.

"It pretty much shuts down my ghost energy."

"What?!" I asked, panicking. "What will happen to you?"

"My ghost energy will disappear until I get to my parent's lab. They have a machine that counters the effects of the gun."

"You're confusing me. Your parents study ghosts? You didn't mention that."

"I told you I wasn't going to tell you who my parents were yet. Now, I guess I am. My parents are the two lunatics that just shot me. If I were a normal ghost, I would power me down to a pile of goo. My parents would normally collect that goo, bring it to the lab, and bring me back to normal so they could dissect me." Danny was cut off as the top half of his suit was replaced with a black t-shirt with his logo on the front.

I was too shocked to shocked to form an actual sentence. "The Fentons..? Not normal... goo?"

Danny chuckled. "You'll get it in a few seconds. The last change won't be long, now."

I tried to process what the ghost was saying. His parents were Jack and Maddie Fenton? What did he mean by 'not normal'? Did his parents know they were attacking him? What was the last change?

Danny, meanwhile, looked like he was in some pain from whatever the gun was doing to him, I still didn't really understand it. He was shaking slightly, and curling in on himself a bit, almost as if he were trying to block out the pain. I felt a twinge of guilt. For so long I had believed that ghosts didn't feel pain, how often had I caused him pain like this?

Danny stole my attention with a final cry of pain, before the biggest ring yet appeared around his waist. It traveled all the way around his body, changing his black shirt to white, and his black shoes to red. Finally, his white hair disappeared, leaving black.

It was at this moment that I realized what was going on.

Dani had done the same thing. Same white ring, same inverted color change, same end result. She had gone from human to ghost in the blink of an eye.

Phantom was changing from ghost to human.

Danny Phantom… to Danny Fenton.

Danny, as if to confirm her suspicion, finally opened his eyes. They had been squeezed shut in obvious pain. The ectoplasmic green was gone, and in it's place were ice blue eyes.

He spoke, "I had an accident in the lab. The portal, when I first turned it on, zapped me with an enormous amount of ghost energy and electricity." He paused for a moment in thought. He looked up at me when he continued. "I protect Amity because if I hadn't turned the portal on in the first place, ghosts would never be able to come in through it. There would not be a single ghost in Amity if I hadn't been too curious for my own good. Now, I'm a half-dead superhero, and ghosts invade Amity on a daily basis. It's my fault."

I smiled reassuringly, and offered him my hand. He took it, and for the second time that night, I helped him back up. This was the beginning of the fifth member of Team Phantom.

~END FLASHBACK~

I broke from my thoughts when Lancer called my name.

"Sorry, say again?" I asked.

"You were about to tell us why Phantom protects Amity."

I laughed. "No I wasn't. I was just saying that I trusted him because he told me. I don't plan on telling you guys though. That's his secret to tell, not mine."

The whole class groaned. I, of course, completely ignored them.

"Ok, I've decided what we're going to do next. I'm going back into that deathtrap, and I'm going to clear one room of traps and you all are going to stay in that one room."

"Val! You'll get killed in there!"

"Ms. Grey, I can't allow that.."

"Thats an awful idea."

Most of the class started complaining at my plan. I rolled my eyes.

"Guys, I'll be fine. Besides, I'll have Kwan to guide me."

"WHAT?"

"That plan is even worse than the last one. It's terrible."

Kwan paled tremendously.

"HEY!" I yelled, shutting them up. I'm not taking him in with me, that's stupid."

I reached into a compartment of my suit and pulled out a visor-like device. I put it over Kwan's eyes. He turned his head in my direction, and he laughed.

"Hey, I can see myself. Weird." He said.

I rolled my eyes. "You can see whatever I see. So, while I'm walking around in there, you point out potential traps. Ok? You just stay here with the others."

Before anyone could argue, I walked into the house, putting my life almost entirely in the hands of my reflexes and Kwan's knowledge of horror movies.

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

**Danny's P.O.V.**

I dodged another pink blast, returning the shot and knocking out another soldier. They seemed endless. I had already evacuated the less powerful ghosts, so at the moment me, Sam, Tucker and about twenty powerful ghosts were holding off hordes of soldiers. We weren't losing, but we weren't really winning either. They just kept getting up after we knocked them down.

We'd been at this for about ten minutes when Tucker reminded us of how brilliant he is.

"Peter Smith!" I yelled, and one of their soldiers collapsed.

I looked through the crowd while fighting off the closer soldiers. Most of them were from Amity, I recognized them from around town (Amity Park is a small town, lots of people know each other) but I didn't know them by name. Then I had an idea.

I flew up above the crowd and turned invisible. The soldiers below didn't even seem to notice, they just continued attacking the others. I yelled as loud as he could,

"Jasmine Fenton!"

I wasn't sure if she'd heard it or not, or if she was there at all, so I just continued yelling people I knew.

"Madeline Fenton! Jack Fenton!" I supposed that we could convince my parents to help if they were there, as long as I was in human form.

I continued to yell names of people I knew, and Sam and Tucker followed my example. Even some ghosts were yelling names. To my relief, the crowd of soldiers were slowly diminishing.

A few minutes later, I was back on the ground fighting the remaining soldiers. The small, hot-pink army was being pushed back and the freed humans were hiding behind me, Sam, Tucker and the ghosts.

Then, completely out of the blue, the Pink army retreated out of Skull Rock. It was almost too easy, but at the moment, we were all too happy to care.

There was silence for a few moments. Then, Tucker and I looked at each other, smiled, and collapsed in exhaustion.

Sam laughed at our antics, and told us she was going to o find medical supplies for the humans. She walked oou of the Skull's main room

For a few minutes, the humans we freed from the mind control just wandered around, trying to find their family and friends. There were about a hundred or so. I assumed that most of them had been freed by Sam, her family had a lot of connections and her voice can be pretty loud when she wants it to be. I smiled at the thought of her.

Deciding that we shouldn't wait for the Soldiers to come back with more friends, I called upon one of the ghosts that I knew was here.

"Wulf?!" I called. My call was answered a moment later when the large green ghost appeared by my side.

"Mia amiko!" He said excitedly _My friend!_

"Kiel vi fartas?" I asked, worried for him. I had been practicing my Esperanto and it was almost flawless now. _How are you?_

"Mi estas nevundita. Vi?" _I am uninjured. You?_

"Mi vivas. Mi scivolis se vi povas fari vestiblo por ke mi sendu la homoj hejme?" _I'll live. I was wondering if you can make a portal for me to send the humans home?_

"Eble ni ne devas sendi ilin reen tuj. Kio se la fantomo kiu kaptis ilin faras tiel denove?"

_Perhaps we should not send them back immediately. What if the ghost who caught them does so again?_

"Laŭ Clockwork la lecionoj, la ĉefo devus esti nekapabla kontroli ilin denove nun ke ni liberigis ilin unufoje." _According to Clockwork's lessons, the leader should be unable to control them again now that we have freed them once._

Wulf shrugged and extended his claws, but I motioned for him to wait. I floated up above the crowd.

"Hey!" I called down to them.

I had everyone's attention immediately.

"Ok, so I get that you're all probably _very_ confused as to how you got here and such, but right now I can't do anything about it. Right now, I can't save to town on my own. I need you all. I need you all to come back to Amity with us, and then I need you to yell and scream the names of your friends and family around the streets. If you see anyone wearing outfits similar to the ones you're wearing right now, yell the names even more. Sam, Tucker and I can answer any questions you had right now."

"Where's my Danny you filthy blob of ectoplasm?!" Screamed a voice from the crowd.

_Oh, great. _I thought. _Mom._

"Uhhhh," I started, "He should be around here somewhere…" I called on my ghost form to make a duplicate. It would have worked, too, if I hadn't been shot in the back halfway through the process. I could hear Tucker, and surprisingly, Jazz call out as I hit the ground. A few more humans voiced their concern as well as they searched for the source.

My eyesight blurred, slightly, and I began to get a bit concerned. I had no Idea what the purpose of this gun was, and it didn't feel at all like the other guns I'd been hit by during the fight, and a moment later I realized why.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't his majesty himself." A voice sneered from the entrance of Skull Rock.

It was a ghost, I could tell by the being's spectral tail. He had bright, pink eyes. The shot that I'd been hit with hadn't been from a gun, it was from a spectre.

I knew exactly who it was.

The Leader.

I growled as I stood up to face the ghost. He was obviously very powerful, or his attack wouldn't have hurt me as much as it did. This being was almost as strong as Pariah Dark.

I flew at the Leader, and I would have hit him if it hadn't been for one beautiful, outgoing, caring and amazing thing.

The ghost raised his fist, and in it was a small, frisbee like contraption. He dropped it to the ground and a hologram appeared. It was Sam, unconscious in a cage.

I stopped in my tracks.

"I have no quarrel with you, Phantom. I only want the human world. You can go on with your business here and I'll be fine. I just want your word that you won't bother me and she can go free."

"Apparently, you didn't do your homework on me. I don't live here. I live in the human world. You attacked my home. For that, and for Sam, _you will pay dearly._" I growled. My eyes were probably blazing red, and Tucker and Jazz seemed to realize that I was beyond reach. They knew the Leader had just signed his own death warrant. They told all the humans to run, which all of them did, except the ever-stubborn Maddie Fenton. (Tucker and Jazz tried especially hard to get her out, knowing that she shouldn't see this side of her son… Even if she didn't know it was her son.)

It seemed that the Leader had just realized his mistake in taking Sam. He seemed to pale slightly at the my glare, but he held his ground.

"How would _she _feel if she found out you killed me because of her?" The leader asked.

If I had been in control, I would have listened. I wasn't, though, and I didn't. I advanced on the Leader slowly, ready to pounce the second he moved.

What happened next happened fast. Too fast. The Leader saw something that I didn't, and he took the opportunity. He threw himself at me and I launched myself at him. Suddenly, just as we were about to collide mid-flight, he teleported. I was about to teleport to where I felt his ecto-signature (that I could sense was still in the ghost zone), when my world went bright blue.

**(I'll be nice and not end with a cliffy like I did last chapter. I'll give you guys a nicer ending. XD)**

**DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

**Third Person P.O.V.**

Everyone was still. Danny had disappeared into Valerie's Thermos, which she'd been aiming at the Leader before he'd teleported. The Leader had seen her. He'd made sure Danny couldn't follow him right away. He gave himself time to escape.

"Damn it," cursed Valerie. She was about to free Danny, when Tucker, of all people, stopped her.

"NO!" He yelled. Valerie's hand froze over the lid.

"What is it, Tucker?" Valerie asked.

"Wait for him to calm down. He was about to completely obliterate that ghost. Evil or not, that's not how we do things. He would have regretted killing the Leader for the rest of his life, and Sam would have felt the guilt of being the reason he felt all of that guilt. He would have been a total _mess._"

"Yea, I guess you're right. He's going to be pretty peeved when we let him out, though. He might not be entirely calm yet. What do you suggest?"

"We follow Danny's plan," Cut in Jazz. "We get Wulf to help us send everyone back to the human realm. We get them somewhere safe. We free as many humans as we can. Then, as soon as we're all settled, we go to the lab in my basement and open the thermos into a ghost shield so he can't hurt anyone. eventually he'll snap out of it and we can work from there on rescuing Sam and the other humans."

Tucker grinned. "Sounds like a plan."


End file.
